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INTERNATIONAL STATESMEN SERIES. 

EDITED BY LLOYD C. SANDEKS. 



VISCOUNT BOLINGBROKE. 



' /< 



V 



LIFE 



OF 



VISCOUNT BOLINGBROKE. 






(J 



f 



BY 



ARTHUR HASSA-LL, M.A., 

w 
Student of Christ Church, Oxford. 







„ _0 SI 1891 . - ,1 



'<2:^\ ,'^v> ott-Kt. 



PHIXiADEIiPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 

1889. ■■ 




'3(^ 







-J) 

i 



PEEFATORY NOTE. 



No apology is needed for the appearance of a short 
Life of Bolinghroke in The Statesmen Series. 
Biographies of Henry St. -John indeed exist, but none 
that has yet appeared fills exactly the place which it is 
hoped this work will occupy. Of Mr. Macknight's Life 
of Lord Bolinghrohe I cannot speak too highly ; and 
every future biographer of Bolingbroke will find himself 
bound to testify to the admirable clearness, thoroughness, 
and ability which characterise this somewhat voluminous 
work. 

Mr. Churton Collins has lately published, in a collected 
form, the well-known Essays, which appeared a few years 
ago in The Quarterli/ Review. To those Essays, as 
well as to Mr. Harrop's very interesting work on Boling- 
broke, I am greatly indebted, and, as far as possible, 
have acknowledged my obligations. 

Bolingbroke was so closely connected with all the 
political, literary, philosophical, and social movements of 
his day, that the history of his life is to a great extent 
that of the first half of the eighteenth century. It is. 



vi PBEFATOBY NOTE. 

therefore, impossible within the small limits of this Pre- 
fatory Note to do more than briefly indicate some of the 
principal sources of information which have been consulted 
in writing this volume, and which will be found useful for 
those who desire further information on Bolingbroke : — 

Dr. Goldsmith's Life of Henry, Lord Viscount Bolinglrohe, in the 
1809 ed. of Bolingbroke's Works; G. W. Cooke's Memoirs of Lord 
Bolinghrohe, 2 vols., 18B6 ; Kemnsat's L'Angleterre au Dix-huitieme 
Siecle, 1856 ; T. Macknight's Life of Lord Bolingbroke, 1863 ; T. E. 
Kebbel's Essays upon History and Politics, 1864 ; J. Skel ton's Essays in 
History and Biography, 1883; E. Harrop's Bolinghrohe, a Political 
Study and Criticism, 1 884; J. Churtou Collins' Bolinghrolie, an His- 
torical Study, 1886 ; W. Stebbing's Verdicts of History Reviewed, 1887. 

The above volumes form a collection of the best 
known biographies of Bolingbroke, but for those who 
desire to realise thoroughly the i'eelings and temper of 
the age, and Bolingbroke's relations to the world of 
politics and literature, a perusal of the following will be 
necessary : — 

Letters and Despatches of the Diilce of Marlborough from 1701-1712. 
The Worlis and Correspondence of Bolingbrolce ; The Private Corre- 
spondenc3 of the Duchess of Marlborough ; Swift's Correspondence, several 
of his works, and especially his Journal to Stella ; The Stuart Papers ; 
The Memoirs of the Dulce of Berwick ; The Memoirs of De Torcy ; The 
Lockhart Papers; The Craftsman; Pope's Correspondence with Swift and 
Bolingbroke ; The Marclimont Papers ; Letters of Bolingbroke to Madame 
de Ferriol and to the Abb€ Alari (published in 1808 by Grimoad). 

The greater part of the above I found not only 
valuable, but most interesting. Even those numbers of 
The Craftsman, which were not written by Bolingbroke 
or Pulteney, are very well worth perusal, and are 
calculated to enable us to realise fully the nature of the 
questions which occupied the public mind, as well as the 



PBEFATOMT NOTE. vii 

policy of the Opposition during a great portion of 
Walpole's Ministry. 

Of modern histories, I have found Mr. Wyon's History 
of the Beign of Queen Anne, simply invaluable, and I 
take this opportunity of expressing my obligations for 
the great assistance I have derived from his excellent 
work, Coxe's Life of Walioole, Mr. Craik's Life of 
Swift, Mr. Wilson's Life of BerwicJc, Colonel Russell's 
Beterhorough, Mr. Stebbing's Essays on Prior and 
Pulteney, Air. Churton Collins' Essay on Voltaire in 
England, Mr. John Morley's Voltaire, Mr. Ballantine's 
(JaHeret, Alison's and Mr. Saintsbury's Lives of Marl- 
borough, and Mr. Leslie Stephen's well-known works on 
the eighteenth century, have severally been consulted. 
For the doings of Bolingbroke's ancestors in the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries mucii useful information will be 
found in Foss' Lives of the Judges, Clarendon's History 
of The Great Behellion, Mr. Gardiner's History of England, 
and in various county histories, a list of which will be 
found in Mr. Marshall's Genealogists' Guide. 

Of the numerous articles in magazines and reviews 
which deal ^A ith points in Bolingbroke's career, the most 
celebrated is one contained in Vol. CXXV. of the 
Edinburgh Bevieiv, which treats in a hostile spirit of 
Bolingbroke's relations with the Jacobites. 

From my friend and colleague, the Eev. T. B. Strong, 
student of Christ Church, I have received much valuable 
help in Chapter VIII. In fact, the latter portion of that 
chapter is to a very great extent his work. To the 
courtesy of the Rev. Andrew Clark, Fellow of Lincoln 



viii PBEFATOBY NOTE, 

College, and editor of the Oxford Matriculation Registers 
now in course of publication by the Oxford Historical 
Society, I owe some very interesting facts which tend to 
throw fresh light on the knotty question of Bolingbroke's 
career at Oxford. To Mr. Lloyd C. Sanders, editor of 
the Series, I am indebted for some ' suggestions which 
have been of great use to me. Lastly, I have to thank 
Mr. H. O. "Wakeman, Fellow of All Souls, not only for 
a very thorough revision of the proof-sheets, but also for 
much invaluable criticism, 

A. H. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

HENRY ST, John's youth and early parliamentary successes. 

1678-1704. 

Henry St. John's birth— Position of Louis XIV., 1678— State of 
Politics in England — The Manor House at Battersea — St. John's 
ancestors — Importance of the St. John family during the Great 
Eebellion — His Father — His early life at Battersea — Eton — Was 
he at Christ Church ? — His-grand tour tind residence at Paris — 
His marriage and entry into Parliament — His appearance aud 
eloquence — Party struggles in 1701 and 1702 — The Protestant 
Succession and the balance of power in Europe — St. John takes 
a prominent position in the House of Commons — Impeachment 
of the Whig Mhiidters - The Kentish Petition — Louis XIV.'s 
recognition of the Pretender — Excitement in England — Death of 
William III. — Declaration of War — St. John is made an Honorary 
Doctor at Oxford — Comparison of the views of the Whigs and 
Tories — The extreme Tories grn dually cease to support the 
war — Godolphin and Marlborough look to the moderate Tories 
— Occasional Conformity Bill — Ashby versus White — Kelations 
between the Lords and the Commons strained — St. John's violent 
conduct — Parliament prorogued, April, 1704 . , . p. 1 



CHAPTER II. 

ST. JOHN SECRETARY-AT-WAR AND AFTER. 

1704-1710. 

The extreme Tories leave the Government — Harley, St. John, and 
other moderate Tories are given places — Brilliant successes abroad 
— St. John's close relations with Marlborough — Elections of 1705 
Whigs have majority in Parliament — Marlborough and Godolphin 



CONTENTS. 

adopt Whig view of England's foreign policy — Harley intrigues 
against the Ministers — St. John's attitude towards the intrigue — 
The Grregg scandal — Eesignation of Harley, St. John, Harcourt, 
and Mansell, 1708 — Ministry becomes entirely Whig — Failure of 
Jacobite rising in Scotland — St. John's reasons for his retirement 
• — His life at Bucklersbury — The Sacheverell incident — Keasons 
of weakness of Whig Ministry: its fall, 1710 — Tory Ministry: 
St. John Secretary of State . , . . • . p. 21 



CHAPTER III. 

BOLINGBROKE's diplomacy; the peace of UTRECHT. 

1710-1713. 

Party spirit runs high — St. John's elevation to the post of Secretary of 
State — Feelings of the Tory party — The elections of 1710 — Tory 
foreign policy — Peace necessary — Difhculties in the way of peace 
■ — The Examiner — Number Ten — Employment of Swift — Violence 
of the Tory squires — Tlse October Club — Discontent at Hurley's 
indecision — Guiscard's attack on Harley — Its effect — Harley 
becomes Earl of Oxford — Growing rivahy between Oxford and 
St. John — England's true relation to the Allies considered — 
Negotiations opened with France — Death of Joseph I., April, 1711 
— Failure of St. John's expedition to North America — Arrival of 
Mesnager — Preliminary articles signed in September — Discovery 
by the Allies of England s intention to make peace — General ex- 
citement — St. John's measures — Publication of The Conduct of the 
Allies — The famous debate in the House of Lords — Defeat of 
the Government— Dismii-sal of Marlborough — Creation of Tory 
Peers — St. John continues his "strong remedies "— Opening of 
conferences at Utrecht, Jan. 29, 1712 — Protracted character of the 
negotiations — St. John raised to the Peerage — Visits Paris and 
sees Louis XIV. — Charges against Bolingbroke — Shrewsbury 
sent to Paris, January, 1713, to hasten the negotiations — 
Bolingbroke's ultimatum — The treaties signed — Criticism of the 
Peace of Utrecht, of the means by which it was brought about, 
and of its terms — The greatness of Bolingbroke's work — He 
anticipated the policy of Chatham — Place occupied in English 
and French history by the Peace of Utrecht . . . p. 44 



CONTENTS. xi 

CHAPTER lY. 

THE SUCCESSION QUESTION. 

1713-1714. 

Possibility of a Stuart Eestoration — Bolingbroke's real policy — 
Reasons for the belief that he was a Jacobite — Opinion of Mr. 
Wyon — Bolingbroke never a Jacobite — State of politics ou con- 
clusion of Peace of Utrecht — The Jacobites, the Hanoverian 

Tories, the Neutrals — Reconstruction of the Ministry The 

" Crisis " — Unp£)pularity of Harley's trimming policy — The Tories 
rally round Bohngbroke — His extreme measures — Activity of the 

Whigs — Attempt to bring the Electoral Prince into England 

Eage of the Queen — Reward ofifered for apprehension of the 
Pretender — End of the Session, July 9— Approach of the Crisis 
— Dismissal of Oxford, July 27 — The Treasury to be put in 
Commission — Diflticulty in choosing Commissioners — Illness of 

the Queen— Shrewsbury appointed Treasurer — Death of Anne 

Ruin of Bolingbroke's plans^^-His failure due to various causes 

Policy and position of Shrewsbury — A consideration of Boling- 
broke's pohcy at the end of Anne's reign — Vigour of Whigs, p. 84 



CHAPTER y. 

BOLINGBROKE IN EXILE. 
1714-1725. 



Failure of the Schemes of Oxford and Bolingbroke — Accession of 
George I. — Attitude of the Council of Regency towards Bolino-- 
broke— His removal from his Secretaryship— Seizure of the papers 
of Strafford and Prior — Hostile attitude of Ministers — Alarm 
of Bolingbroke — His flight a fatal mistake — His attainder — He 
enters the service of the Pretender — He acts loyally in the 

Jacobite cause — His amusing description of James' Council 

James' character — Arrival of Ormond in Paris — Death of 
Louis XIV. — Failure of Jacobite rising of 1715 — Causes of the 
failure — Bolingbroke's dismissal from James' service — Berwick's 
testimony to his ability — Bolingbroke attempts to secure the 
reversal of his attainder — His Letter to Wyndham —His second 
marriage — Life at La Source. — Letters to M. de Pouilly — Voltaire's 
visit to La Source^His pardon passes the Great Seal, 1723 — 
Bolingbroke visits England— Fails to conciliate Walpole — Aids 



xii CONTENTS. 

Townshend and Walpole in their diplomatic 'struggle against 
Carteret — Kenewed endeavours to secure reversal of his attainder 
— Their success, 1725 — His return to England • • p. 109 



OHAPTEE VI. 

THE OPPOSITION TO WALPOLE, 

1725-1742. 



Bolingbroke settles at Dawley— State of politics on his return— Strong 
position of Walpole and Townshend — Character of Walpole's 
policy — The Whig plan of Government — Its good and bad points 
— Bolingbroke fails to undermine Walpole's influence with 
George I. — He joins Pulteney in the management of The Craftsman 
— Character of Pulteney and of his brother — The various sections 
which opposed Walpole — Bolingbroke unites them into a powerful 
Opposition — The Craftsman — Bolingbroke's first contribution to 
The Craftsman — His Letters on the History of Athens — His Remarks 
on the History of England — No. 51 — The Norfolk Lanthorn — 
Attacks on Walpole's foreign policy — The danger to Gibraltar — 
The Defences of Dunkirk — The Treaties of Seville and of Vienna 
— The Occasional Writer — The Excise Scheme — Popular clamour 
— The Scheme withdrawn — Bolingbroke's attitude towards it — 
His Dissertation on Parties — The Election of 1734 — ^Whig majority 
— Bolingbroke's political connection with Pulteney ends — He 
leaves England, 1735 — His objects in forming the Opposition to 
Walpole — His comparative failure — Attitude of the discontented 
Whigs towards him after 1735 — Eeasons of Bolingbroke's retire- 
ment to France — The True Use of Retirement and Study — Letters 
on History — The Spirit of Patriotism — His return to England in 
1738 — Norfolk House and Frederic, Prince of Wales — Bolingbroke 
writes his Idea of a Patriot King — Growing unpopularity of 
Walpole — Secession of Tories from the House of Commons — Death 
of Wyndham, 1740— Conduct of Tories and Jacobites, 1741— Fall 
of Walpole, 1742 — Death of Bolingbroke's father — ^Whigs continue 
in power under Wilmington — ^Bolingbroke and the Tories " dished " 
by the Whigs — Bolingbroke declares he had long ago estimated 
his Whig allies at their true value p. 129 



CONTENTS. xiii 

CHAPTER YII. 

BOLingbkoke's later years. 
1742-1751. 

His return to Argeville — His pavilion — Again in England — Politics 
in 1743 — Wilmington Prime Minister — Influence of Carteret — 
Carteret's foreign policy — Bolingbroke's opposition to him — 
Keturn to Argeville— Battle of Dettingen — At Aix-la-Chapelle — 
In England — The Manor House at Battersea becomes a political 
centre — Opposition of the Pelhams to Carteret — Fall of Carteret 
— Pelham's "War Administration not successful — The Jacobite 
Eebellion — The Three Days Revolution — Defeat of the King — 
Bolingbroke and the Rebellion of '45 — His weariness of the 
world — Some Beflections on the Present State of the Nation — 
His attack on Pope — Defence of Pope by Warburton — ^Death of 
Lady Bolingbroke — Bolingbroke's last days — ^His death, p. 157 



CHAPTER YIII. 

REVIEW OF bolingbroke's CAREER AND CHARACTER. 

Always struggling against an adverse fate — The death of Anne — The 
fall of Walpole — His failure to secure the reversal of his 
attainder — His transcendent abilities — His writings — Illustrations 
— His correspondence — Eloquence — His general intellectual 
qualities^His power of application — Views taken by Mr. Lecky 
and Mr. Harrop of his character — His faults — The child of his 
age — His enormous personal influence — Love of hunting — His 
horses and dogs — His life at Bucklersbury, Ashdown Park, La 
Source, Dawley, Chanteloup — The last years of his life at 
Battersea — His influence over young statesmen — ^His European 
position ♦ . . • p. 165 



xiv CONTENTS, 

CHAPTEE IX. 

bolingbkoke's literary friendships. 

Close connection between politics and literature — Its results — Defoe 
— Importance of political writings — Addison — Jolin Philips — ■ 
Bolingbroke's literary friends — Pope — Parnell — Arbuthnot — 
Prior — Gay — Swift — Society of Brothers — Effect of Anne's death 
— Bolingbroke at Dawley — Pope at Twickenliam — Meeting of 
the survivors of the Scriblerus Club — The correspondence of 
Bolingbroke, Pope, and Swift — Influence of — Bolingbroke on 
Pope^-The Essay on Man — The Moral Essays — Satires and 
Epistles of Horace imitated — Devotion of Pope to Bolingbroke — 
Influence of Pope on Bolingbroke — Voltaire's relations with 
Bolingbroke — They meet first at La Source — Voltaire's exile — 
Comes to England — Studies English literature — Influence of 
Bolingbroke on Voltaire's Lettres sur les Anglais — Voltaire's 
philosophical views — Extent of Bolingbroke's deistical opinions 
on Voltaire — Bolingbroke's literary tastes and literary friend- 
ships p. 181 



CHAPTER X. 

bolingbeoke's political, philosophical, and theological opinions. 

Note on his political writings — Charge of inconsistency — His political 
aims in Anne's reign — His short period of Jacobitism — Hi a 
political theories when opposing Walpole — The Dissertation on 
Parties — His reconstruction of Toryism — The Patriot King — 
Its effect on the policy of George III. and on the future of 
Toryism — Bolingbroke a democratic Tory — Lord " Beaconsfield's 
opinion as to the value of his services to the Tory party — Boling- 
broke's philosophical and religious opinions — His writings — Their 
uncritical and unhistorical character — Opinion of Lechler — The 
principles of the Deistic writers well illustrated from Bolingbroke's 
writings — Contempt for all dogmatic theologians — Importance of 
reason — Memory — Influence of the rationalistic point of view 
upon psychology — Bolingbroke's treatment of ethics and theology 
— ^His political theory p. 199 



CONTENTS, XV 

CHAPTER XI. 

CONCLUSION. 

Bolingbroke seldom judged fairly — ^Why this is so — Hatred of Whigs 
— Attacks on his private life — Severe criticism of his public 
career — The Treaty of Utrecht a great work, and carried out by 
the Whigs — Walpole's appreciation of Bolingbroke's foreign 
policy — The questions of England's non-intervention on the 
Continent, of the importance of the navy, of the value of the 
Colonies treated of by Boliugbroke — Carries out Cromwell's policy 
— Unfair attitude of Johnson and Burke — The real value of 
Bolingbroke's writings— Popular view of his character— Its 
absurdity— Summary of his work— The interest still taken in 
his life — His claim to the title of " Great." , , • P« 222 



HENRY ST. JOHN, 
VISCOUNT BOLINGBROKE. 

CHAPTER I 

HENRY ST. JOHN'S YOUTH AND EARLY PARLIA- 
MENTARY SUCCESSES. 

1678-1704. 

Henry St. John's birth— Position of Louis XIV., 1678— State of 
Politics in England — The Manor House at Battersea — St. John's 
ancestors — Importance of the St. John family during the Great 
Rebellion — His Father — His early life at Battersea — Eton — Was 
he at Christ Church ? — His grand tour and residence at Paris — 
His marriage and entry into Parliament — His appearance and 
eloquence — Party struggles in 1701 and 1702 — The Protestant 
Succession and the balance of power in Europe — St. John takes 
a prominent position in the House of Commons — Impeachm-nt 
of the Whig Ministers— The Kentish Peiition— Louis XIV.'s 
recognition of the Pretender — Excitement in England — Death of 
"William III. — Declaration of War — St. John is made an Honorary 
Doctor at Oxford — Comparison of the views of the Whigs and 
Tories — The extreme Tories gradually cease to support the war — 
Godolpliiu and Marlborough look to the moderate Tories — 
Occasional Conformity Bill — Ashby versus White — Relations 
between the Lords and the Commons strained — St. John's violent 
conduct — Parliament prorogued, April, 1704:-i 

Henry St. John was born at Battersea in October, 1678, 
and was baptized on the tenth of that month. The year 
of his birth augured a stormy future. In August, the 

B 



2 HENB Y ST. JOHN, VISCO UNT BOLINGBBOKE- 

Peace of Nimeguen had been made, and Louis XIV. 
had reached the height of his power. During the next 
ten years, by his aggressive and ambitious pohcy, he 
endangered the balance of strength in Europe. St. John 
was destined to assist Marlborough in carrying out the 
operations employed so successfully to reduce the preten- 
sions of the Bourbons, and to lower the pride of Louis 
Xiy. He was destined in 1712 to be received in France 
as the pacificator of Europe, as the statesman who would 
enable an exhausted country to make an honourable 
peace. That peace itself proved to be both the greatest 
monument of his fame and one of the principal reasons 
of his exile. 

The events of the autumn of 1678 in England were no 
less destined to colour his whole future. The discovery 
of the so-called Popish Plot in August caused the wildest 
excitement. The impeachment of Danby, and the disso- 
lution of the Long Parliament of the Restoration were 
followed, in 1679, by that endeavour to exclude the Duke 
of York from the Crown, which led to the formation of 
the Whig and Tory parties. The whole history of 
Bolingbroke's life, from his entry into Parliament in 
1701 to his death in 1751, is, without any exaggeration, 
the history of the Tory party, of its triumph in 1710, of 
its failure in 1714, of its long years in the cold shade 
of Opposition, and finally of its re-construction. 

His birth took place m the old Manor House, which 
was pleasantly situated near the Thames. " The family 
seat," wrote Hughson in 1808, in his ^' Circuit of London," 
" was a venerable structure, which contained forty rooms 
on a floor. The greatest part of the house was pulled 
down in 1778. The part left standing forms a dwelling- 
house : one of the parlours fronting the Thames is lined 
with cedar, beautifully inlaid, and was the favourite study 



EABLT FARLIAMENTABY SUCCESSES. 3 

of Pope, the scene of many a literary conversation 
between him and his friend Bohno-broke." 

c5 

In this family mansion resided his grand-parents, Sir 
Walter St. John and Lady Joanna, with whom lived their 
son Henry St. John and his wife the Lady Mary, second 
daughter and joint heiress of the Earl of Warwick. On 
his mother's side the future Viscomit Bolingbroke could 
claim descent from the great family of D'Eu, distinguished 
in Normandy before the invasion of England by William 
the Conqueror. On his father's side he sprang from a 
race no less ancient or renowed. William St. John is 
said to have held an important post at the battle of 
Hastings, and one of his sons added to the wealth no less 
than to the glory of the name oF St. John by his prowess 
in the wars -against the Welsh? He was possessed of the 
Manor of Stanton St. John in Oxfordshire, and gave the 
site of the Convent at Goclstow. His great-grand- 
daughter and heiress, Mabel, married Adam de Port, the 
Lord of Basing in Hampshire, a member of an old English 
family illustrious in pre-Norman times. The son of this 
marriage, William, took, in the reign of John, his mother's 
name, and styled himself William de St. John, Lord of 
Basing, and son and heir of Adam de Port 

During the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth cen- 
turies the family became prominent. In Henry III.'s 
reign, John St. John, who held the barony of Stanton, 
was appointed an itinerant justice for Oxfordshire, and 
his son Roger was killed at the battle of Evesham. 
Under Henry Y. Sir John St. John was Mayor of 
Bordeaux. In the reign of Henry VI. Oliver St. John 
married Lady Margaret Beauchamp, sister of Lord 
Beaucharap, and acquired the lordships of Bletso and of 
Lydiard Tregoze. On the death of her husband. Lady 
Margaret married the Duke of Somerset, and their 

B 2 



4 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

daughter, by her union with Edmund Tudor, Duke of 
Richmond, became the mother of Henry VIL The east 
window in Battersea Church, containing portraits of Henry 
VII., his grandmother Margaret Beauchamp, and Queen 
Elizabeth, still commemorates the alliance of the St. 
Johns with the Tudors. After the reign of Elizabeth, 
the two main branches into which the family was then 
divided, became very prominent in public life. Oliver 
St. John, Lord of Bletso, son of the first Lord St. John 
of Bletso, who was created a baron in 1559, was as Lord 
Lieutenant of Bedfordshire warned in 1614: on account of 
his coolness with reoard to the benevolence which James 
I. was attempting to levy in the counties. His son 
Oliver was created by James in 1624 the first Earl of 
Bolingbroke, and, during his lifetime, Charles I. elevated 
his son to the House of Lords as St. John of Bletso. In 
spite of these marks of royal favours, the Earl showed a 
'' mutinous disposition." In 1626, when Charles attempted 
to raise a forced loan, fifteen or sixteen of the Peers, 
among whom was Bolingbroke, refused to lend ; and 
later both father and son espoused heartily the Parlia- 
mentary cause, the Earl being one of the Peers who were 
" all of the Presbyterian dye." During the Civil War 
the Earl acted as a commissioner of the Admiralty, and, 
after figuring as a member of the Assembly of Divines and 
as a Joint Commissioner of the Great Seal, died in 1646. 
His son was killed at Edgehill, leaving two sons, each 
of whom succeeded in turn to the family honours. The 
elder, who married a daughter of the Duke of Newcastle, 
died in 1689, and the younger in 1711. Both seem to 
have taken considerable part in the ordinary county 
business of Bedfordshire. The peerage which became 
extinct in 1711, was revived in 1712 in the person of 
Henry St. John^ the subject of this memoir. 



EABLY PABLIAMENTABY SUCCESSES. 5 

During the seventeenth century, the younger line, which 
held Lydiard Tregoze, was also winning renown. A 
turbulent member of the family, Oliver St. John, distin- 
guished himself in the Irish wars of Elizabeth and of 
James I., was appointed a Commissioner for the settle- 
ment of Ulster, and ruled Ireland as Lord Deputy from 
1614 to 1622, becoming in 1621 an Irish Peer with a 
title of Viscount Grandison. In 1624 he was one of the 
Council of War in England, and in 1626 he was created 
an Eno^lish Peer with the title of Baron Treo^oze, 
receiving grants of the manors of Battersea and Wands- 
worth. 

His great-nephew William, second Viscount Grandison, 
is well known to readers of Clarendon. After fiofhtino- 
gallantly for the king, he died in 1644 at Oxford of 
wounds received at the siege of Bristol, and left the 
Battersea estates to his uncle Sir John St. John. Three 
of Sir John's sons died for the Crown, and after the death 
of a grandson the family estates reverted to a younger 
son of Sir John, Walter, who married Joanna, daughter 
of Oliver St. John, the Chief Justice of the Common 
Pleas. 

This Oliver, grandson of Thomas, a younger son of the 
first Lord St. John of Bletso, had as a young lawyer 
shown as early as 1629 a strong disposition to support the 
cause of Parliament. He became famous in 1637 as the 
defender of John Hampden in the case of Ship Money. 
In the autumn of 1640 he and Pym drew up the Petition 
of the Twelve Peers for a Parliament, and, in spite of his 
appointment by Charles to the post of Solicitor-General, 
remained true to his principles, took a prominent part in 
attacking Strafford, and supported all the violent mea- 
sures of the Long J Parliament. In 1648 he was appointed 
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. He occupied an 



6 EENB Y ST. JOHN, VISCO UNT BOLINOBBOKE. 

influential position during Cromwell's Protectorate, and 
on Cromwell's death was named one of the Council of 
State. 

The marriage of his daughter Joanna to Sir Walter 
St. John seemed destined to restore harmony in the 
faYnily. In the Manor House at Battersea the Lady 
Joanna's grandson Henry St. John was brought up. 
The memory of Sir Walter and Lady Joanna lingered 
long in Battersea. By the former the church was 
repaired and a free school founded and endowed. In 
1708 Sir Walter died, leaving behind him a character 
for moderation, kindliness, and public spirit. His 
wife, the patroness of celebrated preachers like Simon 
Patrick, of learned theologians like Dr. Manton, and of 
eccentric Nonconformists like Daniel Burgess, seems to 
have been of a sterner type than her husband. In her 
was exemplified the stern puritanical spirit of the Parlia- 
mentary lawyer. 

Under the care of these worthy people, Henry St. John 
passed his early years. Of his mother we know little. 
When he was but six years old his father, who led an idle 
life of pleasure, killed in a brawl Sir William Estcourt, 
pleaded guilty, and with difficulty secured the king's 
pardon. He seems to have been indifferent to politics, 
and took no part in the party quarrels of Anne's reign. 
In the autumn of 1710, just after the appointment of St. 
John to the post of Secretary of State, at a most exciting 
epoch in English history, Swift wrote to Stella that St. 
John's father " is a man of pleasure, that walks the Mall, 
and frequents St. James Coffee House, and the chocolate 
houses, and the young son is principal Secretary of 
State." In 1716, when his brilliant son was an exile, he 
was created Baron St. John of Battersea, and died in 
1742, after a placid life extending over ninety years. 



EARLY PABLIAMENTAIiY SUCCESSES. 7 

On the death of his first wife he had married Angelica 
Magdalene, daughter of George Pillesary, described as 
the Treasurer-General of the French Marines, by whom 
he had three sons and one daughter. The eldest son 
George acted as Secretary to the English plenipotentiaries 
at the Congress of Utrecht, and had the honour of 
bringing over to England the final draft of the Treaty, 
He died shortly afterwards and his brother John 
succeeded to his expectations. Frederick, the son of this 
John, inherited in 1751 the honours which the author 
of the Treaty of Utrecht had obtained, and became 
Viscount Bolingbroke ; from him is descended the present 
Viscount. 

A gloomy picture has been drawn by some writers of 
the early life of Henry St. John. He may have been for 
a time under the care of Daniel Burgess, who, though a 
Nonconformist, was far from being a sour fanatic. He 
himself tells us that he was at times condemned to read 
the works of Dr. Manton. In a letter to Pope he says : — 

"It puts me in mind of a Paritanical parson, Dr. Manton, who, 
if I mistake not — for I have never looked at the fulio since I was 
a boy, and condemned sometimes to read in it — made a hundred 
and nineteen eermons on tlie cxis. psalm," And, writing to 
Swift in 1721, hs threatens to make his next letter as long as one of 
Dr. Manton's, '• who taught my youth to yawn, and prepared me to he 
ail High Churchmau, that I might never hear him read, nor read him 
more." 

But beyond this fact all that is known of Sir Waiter 
and Lady Joanna would lead to the conclusion that the 
young Henry's early years were passed under kind and 
thoughtful guardianship. Of his school days at Eton 
little information can be gleaned. Walpole w-as one of 
his schoolfellows, and Horace Walpole, in his Memoirs of 
the 'Reign of George II., states that " they had set out as 



8 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

rivals at school." As Walpole was two years St. John's 
senior, this statement must, in the absence of other 
evidence, be received with caution. After some years at 
Eton, St. John, it is usually stated, proceeded to Christ 
Church and remained there some years. Some writers, 
in unhistorical flights of fancy, have ventured to describe 
in some detail his life at College. But of his residence 
at Oxford there is no absolute proof The tradition that 
he was at Christ Church is, however, strong, and is re- 
peated by almost all his biographers. In a letter written 
from Windsor Castle to the Duke of Shrewsbury on 
December the 3rd, 1713, Bolingbroke says : " As to Dr. 
Friend, I have known him long, and cannot be without 
some partiality for him, since he was of Christ Church." 
In the autumn of 1702, on the occasion of the Queen's 
visit to Oxford, many of the leading Tories were made 
honorary Doctors. Among these was St. John, and he 
was then entered on the books of Christ Church. It has 
been suggested that, in consequence of this honour paid to 
him, he was accustomed to call himself a Christ Church 
man, but that as a matter of fact he never had resided in 
Oxford. Nevertheless, in the absence of positive evidence, 
it is still possible that the tradition may be true, and that 
St. John did study for a time at Oxford. In the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries students frequently worked in 
Oxford without joining a college. Antony Wood states 
distinctly that in his own day many who came to Oxford 
not intending to graduate did not matriculate. Poor 
scholars would follow this course to avoid expense, and 
a boy of good family like St John, who came to Oxford 
with his own tutor, or who read with a tutor of some 
College, would not necessarily matriculate or live in 
College. His name would therefore not appear on the 
Buttery List. Sir Philip Sidney is always said to have 



EABLT PABLIAMENTABY SUCCESSES. 9 

been at Christ Church, but his name is not to be found in 
any of the books of the University or of Christ Church. 
Sir Harry Vane studied in Oxford, but did not matriculate ; 
Davenant the poet is said to have been of Lincoln College, 
because his tutor was a Fellow of Lincoln. There is, 
however, no evidence that he matriculated. It may then 
be true that St. John came to Oxford, studied with a 
Christ Church tutor, never lived within the walls of Christ 
Church, and left Oxford without having matriculated. 
He would be spoken of as being of Christ Church, and 
might consider himself a Christ Church man. 

There is little doubt that during these early years he 
acquired a considerable knowledge of the Greek and Latin 
languages, especially of the latter ; aided by an unusually 
good memory, and by remarkable* powers of concentra- 
tion, he managed, in all probability before he was twenty 
years of age, to make himself thoroughly conversant with 
most of the best Latin authors. One of the most striking 
characteristics of St. John is his readiness to turn from 
politics or pleasure to hard study. In 1708 he buried 
himself with his books in the country. After the failure 
of 1715 he left Paris to study philosophy in the heart of 
France. In 1735, disappointed with the course of his 
struggle against Walpole, he again withdrew to France, 
where he wrote some of his masterpieces. 

In 1697 he was in London, where for some months he 
led a riotous life in imitation of his cousin John Wilmot, 
Earl of Rochester, who had lately died. His sympathy 
with literature and literary men was even then evidenced by 
the intimate relations he formed with Dryden. Prefixed 
to the translation of Virgil which appeared in July, 1/97, 
was a poetical composition in the shape of some verses of 
little merit, bearing the signature " H. St. John." The 
existence of the well-known legends that St, John received 



10 MENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE, 

one morning from the hands of Dryden the manuscript of 
the Ode to St. Cecilia s Bay, and that on another day he 
was urged to outstay Jacob Tonson, from whom the poet 
apprehended some rudeness, seems to attest the truth of 
Pope's statement that St. John was at this time Dryden's 
friend and protector. 

In the autumn of 1697 he left England for a Con- 
tinental tour of two years. A portion of the tiiue was 
spent in Italy, but it is probable that he lived the greater 
part of 1698 and 1699 in Paris, where Lord Jersey, 
the Eng-lish Ambassador and a descendant of Viscount 
Grandison, introduced him to Parisian life and society. 
There he met Matthew Prior, then Secretary to the 
Embassy, who was destined to play an important part 
under St. John in bringing about the Peace of Utrecht. 
The thorough mastery of the French tongue which St. 
John acquired during his stay in Paris proved a most 
invaluable accomplishment during the years he was 
Secretary of State. 

At the beo^innlno- of 1700 he returned to Enofland, 
where he wrote an ode, entitled Almahide, which, like 
his earlier efforts, shows that poetry was not his province. 
His wild and reckless life alarmed his relatives, who 
seemed conscious that the turbulent and unrestrained 
vigour of their young kinsman might be utilized. It was 
hoped that marriage and a seat in Parliament would 
steady him and turn his attention to politics, then passing 
through an intensely interesting and exciting phase, 
worthy of the intellect, enero-y, and ambition of St. John. 
At the end of 1700, he married Frances Winchescombe, 
daughter, and one of the coheiresses of Sir Henry 
Winchescombe, a well-to-do baronet living in Berkshire, 
and a descendant of Jack of Newbury, so famous in the 
reign of Henry VIII. 



EABLY FABLIAMENTABY SUCCESSES. 11 

The lady brought St. John considerable wealth, and on 
the death of her father succeeded to an estate near 
Reading. Swift, who was much attached to her, tells us 
how devoted she was to her husband in 1711, thouoh 
tliere is no doubt that the harmony of their married life 
was at times broken by quarrels, which, about the year 
1713, appear to have become serious. Still she seems to 
have loved him faithfully, and after his fall she wrote to 
Swift that she became furious, if they mentioned her 
" dear lord without respect." When St. John fled from 
England in 1715 she did not follow him, and died in 1718, 
leaving him nothing. 

In the Parliament which met on February the 6th, 
1701, St. John sat for Wootton Bassett, a family borough 
in Wiltshire. He at once Mtached himself to the Tory 
party, and more particularly to Harley, who was leader 
of the Tories and Speaker of the House of Commons. 
Rarely has a Parliament met at a more exciting political 
crisis ; rarely has political opinion swayed backwards 
and forwards more violently, than uring the four years 
succeeding the Peace of Ryswick. Into the vortex of the 
struggling parties St. John now plunged, and at once 
became prominent, acting as a rule with the extreme 
section of High Churchmen led by Bromley. Nature 
had supplied him with many advantages. Tall and 
graceful in his person, his features were elevated, 
handsome, and refined. His eyes were eager and piercing, 
his nose aquiline, his forehead lofty, his hair dark brown, 
his smile svv'eet and winnino-. With his commandino" 
presence and his very considerable oratorical powers, St. 
John was calculated to impress the assembly of which 
he was now a member. He soon established a repu- 
tation as a skilful Parliame^itary debater among the Tory 
mediocrities who surrounded him. With his felicity ot 



12 HENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

expression and his mastery of sarcasm, he combined a 
tremendous capacity for invective. To his oratory 
alone he owed his early advancement. Such a power 
had not been seen on the side of the Tory squires 
in the House of Commons for many a long day, and as 
he assailed Somers, Wharton, and Halifax with all his 
passionate and often ironical eloquence, it is no wonder 
that he at once secured the admiration and support of the 
" Young England " Tories. Seldom has a young states- 
man of St. John's ability found, on entering Parliament, 
such excellent opportunities for at once taking a leading 
position. 

The whole history of England from February, 1701, to 
the death of William III. in March, 1702, illustrates what 
he says in one place, " That we run into extremes' always." 
In 1797 the nation was as anxious to get out of the war as 
it had been in 1689 to get into it, and, although the great 
question of the Spanish Succession still awaited solution, it 
seemed as though England had decided to interfere no 
more in Continental affairs. Hence many soldiers and 
sailors were disbanded, the Dutch guards were dismissed, 
the Partition Treaties were censured, and Philip was 
recognised by William as King of Spain. Even Louis' 
acceptance of the will of Charles II., his seizure of the 
Barrier Towns, and his threatening attitude towards 
English commerce provoked little alarm. Had he satisfied 
England in matters of trade and had he kept the terms 
of the Peace of Kyswick, Philip would have quietly 
secured the Spanish empire without opposition from 
England. But Louis' recognition of the Pretender, in a 
moment of ill-advised chivalry, provoked the most violent 
excitement in England, and led directly to the War of the 
Spanish Succession. St. John himself confessed at a later 
time that " his notions of the situation of Europe on that 



EARLY PARLIAMENTABY SUCCESSES. 13 

extraordinary crisis" were extremely imperfect, and that 
he saw the true interests of his country in a half-light. 
And he allov/ed that he could not see what " Kino- 
William could do in such circumstances as he found 
himself in after thirty years' struggle except what he 
did." 

In St. John's first Parliament the two most important 
questions were the Protestant Succession, and the main- 
tenance of the balance of power in Europe. On these 
two questions the policy of the Whig party, in whose 
ranks the young Walpole found himself, was absolutely 
clear. To prevent at all hazards the return of the 
Stuarts, to form and uphold a league of European 
powers which should guarantee the Parliamentary 
settlement and curb the power of France — was a policy 
which had the advantage of being intelligible. On the 
question of settling the Crown in the succession of the House 
of Hanover the nation was firm, and the Tories, in spite of 
the evident reluctance of many of their number, were 
compelled to frame that great constitutional measure — the 
Act of Settlement. In his account of The State of Parties 
at the Accession of King George I. St. John says with 
reference to this measure : " The Tories voted for it 
then ; yet were they not thought, nor did they aflPect as the 
others did, to be thought, extremely fond of it." And he 
allows on the same place, that at that time the Whigs 
acted like the national party. But it was in connection 
with this measure that St. John first came prominently 
into notice. In spite of his youth he was appointed with 
the Secretary of State, Sir Charles Hedges, to prepare 
and bring in the Bill for Tlie Further Security of the 
Protestant Succession. 

On the question of the balance of power, the nation 
was at that moment indifferent, and St. John, after sup- 



14 HENBYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

porting with all his eloquence the views of Harley on the 
Succession question, attacked with great vehemence the 
Whig Peers who were held by' the Tories to be respon- 
sible for the Partition Treaties. Somers, Portland, 
H.ilifax, and Orford were in April, 1701, successively 
impeached, and only escaped from the violence of the 
" Young England " Tories by the firm attitude of the 
House of Lords. St. John's intemperate attitude at that 
time was brought up against him at a later period when 
he was complaining of the intolerance of the Whig 
majority. When the Kentish Petition was presented, 
he defended the privileges of the House of Commons, 
which he considered were attacked. St. John himself, 
as we have seen, in later times excused his attitude 
towards the Partition Treaties on the score of youth and 
inexperience. The same excuse must serve to explain 
his fierce attacks on the Petitioners. The factious and 
intemperate conduct of the Commons in these matters 
led William to prorogue Parliament in June, and to 
dissolve it in November. Before the new Parliament 
met, party struggles had been forced to yield to grave 
European questions. The violent enthusiasm which, in 
consequence of Louis' recognition of the Pretender, was 
in the autumn of 1701 awakened for the Protestant 
succession, and for a European coalition against France, 
carried all before it, and the nation declared unmistak- 
ably for war. St. John was again returned for Wootton 
Bassett in the new Parliament which was summoned for 
December the 30th, 1701. Harley was again elected 
Speaker, his nomination being seconded by St. John. 

In this Parliament, though the AVhigs had carried 
most of the counties an I the large towns, parties were 
pretty evenly balanced. William's stirring speech pro- 
duced a considerable effect, the Treaties which consti- 



EABLT PABLIA3IENTABY SUCCESSES, 15 

tilted the Grand Alliance were accepted, and supplies 
were voted. The Tory party yielded still further to the 
popular excitement, and passed measures directly aimed 
at the House of Stuart and its partisans. The Pretender 
was attainted of High Treason, and an Abjuration Bill 
was carried, which compelled all office-holders to acknow- 
ledo^e William III. as the rio-htful and lawful Kins', 
and stigmatised as high treason any attempt to hinder 
the next heir according to the Act of Settlement from 
succeeding to the Crown. A great portion of the Tory 
party were opposed to this Bill, and it was only carried 
by a majority of a single vote. St. John sided, during 
the debate on this measure, with the party hostile to the 
Bill. On March the 8th, William III. breathed his last. 
On May the 15th, war was^declared in London, at Vienna, 
and at the Hague, and Marlborough was made Captain 
General of the Queen's forces by land and sea. Parlia- 
ment was dissolved in July, and St. John was a third 
time elected for Wootton Bassett. 

During the recess. Queen Anne, on her way from 
W^indsor to Bath, stopped at Oxford, and that loyal 
University marked the occasion by conferring Acade- 
mical honours on leading members of the Tory party. 
St. John, together with Bromley and Sir Simon Harcourt, 
were made honorary Doctors, and, in addition, St. John, 
as has been already mentioned, was entered on the books 
of Christ Church. These marks of distinction seem to 
show that already St. John had won a reputation remark- 
able in so youthful a politician. 

In October Anne's first Parliament met. For the third 
time Harley was elected Speaker, and the Tories were in 
overwhelming strength. They came up to Parliament 
" in full fury," says Burnet, " against the memory of the 
late king, and against those who had been employed by 



16 HENBY ST. JOHN, VISCO UNT BOLINGBBOKR 

him." Most of the ministerial changes made since 
William's death had been in favour of the Tories. 
Halifax and Soraers were no' longer Privy Councillors ; 
Hedges and Nottingham, both Tories, were made Secre- 
taries of State ; the Lord High Treasurership was placed 
in the hands of the Tory Godolphin, while such pro- 
nounced Tories as Dartmouth and Harcourt were chosen 
Privy Councillors. Thus was laid the foundation of the 
famous Godolphin Administration, which, after adding a 
brilliant page to English history, came to a sudden end 
in 1710. In spite of the moderation of Godolphin and 
Marlborough, it became at once evident that Parliamentary 
history had entered upon a stormy period. Till the re- 
construction of the Ministry in 1704, the influence of the 
extreme Tories was in the ascendant, and for two years 
the relations between the two Houses were more strained 
than at any previous or subsequent epoch. In the House 
of Lords the majority, though not large, was decidedly 
Whig, and under able leaders often proved a serious 
obstacle to St. John and his supporters. The Whigs 
were firmly attached to the principles of the Revolution 
and to the Protestant succession. They were vehemently 
opposed to France, and regarded the annihilation of 
Louis XIV. 's power essential for the independence of 
England. By an extended system of foreign alliances 
tliey hoped to protect the Parliamentary Settlement. The 
bond which united the Whigs was political rather than 
reliorious. 

In the House of Commons probably three fourths of 
the members were Tories. The great aim of the Tories 
was to undo the effects of the Revolution, and to re- 
establish the predominance of the Church and the landed 
interest in the government. A hatred of standing armies, 
a contempt for the new "moneyed" class, the conviction 



EABLY PABLIAMENTABY SUCCESSES, 17 

that England should wage war upon the sea alone, Indis- 
crimlnating attachment to the Church and an undying 
hatred of Nonconformists — such were the recognised Tory 
principles. Various views were held as to the royal suc- 
cession. Probably only a small number were at any time 
sincere Jacobites. The bond which united the mass of 
Tories aa as always religious rather than politi(*al, and the 
cry of " the Church in Danger " invariably united the party. 
While the Tories reflected the views of the Church and 
the landed interest, the Whigs reflected the sentiments of 
the middle class, of the merchants, and of the Noncon- 
formists. The Tory party was not, however, united. 
Already it tended to fall into two divisions of extreme 
and moderate Tories. Rochester, Jersey, Normanby, 
and Nottingham in the Lords, Hedges and Seymour in 
the Commons represented the former section ; ITarley, 
Harcourt, and, later, St. John, were the most prominent 
of the moderate Tories. The peculiar position in which 
the Tory party found itself on Anne's accession could 
hardly fail to be the cause of serious disagreement 
between the two Tory sections. The war was essentially 
a Whig w^ar : yet the Tories had entered upon it, and, 
like Walpole in 1739, were carrying on a war opposed to 
their convictions. They could not deny that the war in 
its inception was necessary, but they viewed with 
dislike the obvious results of war, — the augmented taxes, 
the standing armies, the increased influence of con- 
tractors, jobbers, and fundholders. Rochester had 
opposed even the declaration of war on the ground that 
neither England's commerce nor her security were 
threatened, and had suggested that the share of England 
in the war should be confined to the sending of troops to 
the aid of the Dutch, and perhaps to some pecuniary aid 
to the Allies. It was evident that Godolphin and Marl- 

c 



18 EENBY ST. JOEN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

borough could not hope to carry on the war successfully 
while such views were held by members of the Govern- 
ment. They soon saw that their true policy was to look 
to the moderate Tories for support. But these rocks 
ahead were hardly foreseen in 1702. At that time the 
Tories were apparently a united body, engaged in a great 
struggle with the Whigs over the Occasional Conformity 
Bill, the introduction of which was entrusted to St. John 
and two other Tory members. 

This measure was framed in absolute accordance with 
the opinions of the bulk of the Tory party. The 
Revolution had saved the Church from the daii2:ers which 
threatened her on the side of Rome. The Tories now 
regarded her in equal danger from the Nonconformists, 
whose growing prosperity filled them with alarm. To 
prevent the introduction of Nonconformists into offices of 
emolument and dignity, and to check their influence on 
education, was the object of the Bill against Occasional 
Conformity. 

In his Letter to Sir William Wyndham, St. John, while 
allowing that the Bill was *' necessary for our party 
interest," adds that it was ; — 

"Deemed neither unreasonable nor unjust. The good of society may- 
require that no person shall be deprived of the protection of the 
Government on account of his opinions in religious matters; but it 
does not follow from hence that men ought to be trusted in any 
degree with the preservation of the Establishment who must, to be 
consistent with their principles, endeavour the subversion of what is 
established." 

The Bill, supported by the eloquence of St. John, was 
carried in the Lower, but thrown out in the Upper House. 
In a subsequent conference held in January, 1703, in the 
Painted Chamber, between the Lords and the Commons, 
St. John, as one of the managers for the Lower House, 



EARLY PABLIAMENTABY SUCCESSES. 19 

defended the cause of intolerance. Havinof failed to 
convince the Lords of the evils attendant on occasional 
Conformity, the Tories proceeded to attack Halifax, 
patron of Addison and founder of the Bank of England, 
who was obnoxious to the Tories as a supporter of the 
moneyed interest. Seven commissioners were appointed 
to examine the public accounts, and among these seven 
was St. John. The report of the Commissioners was 
followed by a direct attack on Halifax ; he was voted 
guilty of gross mismanagement, and only saved from 
prosecution at the hands of the Attorney-General by the 
Lords, who absolved him. The Tories in the Lower 
House, furious at the conduct of the Lords, moved a 
strong representation to the Queen, and brougljt forward 
the question of the resumption of King William's grants 
of land, over which there had already been much fierce 
controversy. They then introduced a Bill, disqualifying 
placemen from sitting in Parliament. In the debates 
over these measures St. John found in Robert Walpole, 
who had already gained the ear of the House, a powerful 
antagonist. So violent became the dissensions between 
the two Houses that Anne brought the Session to a close 
on the 27th of February. In the autumn of 1703 
St. John strongly supported the second introduction of 
the Occasional Conformity Bill, which again was thrown 
out by the Lords, and about the same period he took a 
prominent part in attacking the right of the Lords to 
examine accused persons. 

The condition of Scotland was very unsettled, and a 
plot had been discovered which was thought to aim at 
the restoration of the Stuarts. The Peers determined to 
examine the accused persons themselves, and in so doino- 
were opposed by the Tory minority in the Lords sup- 
ported by the strong anti-Whig feeling in the Commons. 

2 



20 EENB Y ST. JOHN, VISCO UNT BOLINGBBOEE. 

It was determined to search the Lords' Journals on the 
subject, and St. John, who was one of the members 
appointed for this purpose, read to the House on the 
20th of December the results of the investigations. The 
Lords defended their position with spirit. In the paper 
war which followed between the two Houses, St. John 
played a considerable part, though it would seem that 
the arguments of Somers, who drew up the addresses of 
the Lords, were far superior to those of the Commons. 
In the great struggle over the case of Ashby and White, 
St. John came prominently forward in opposing the action 
of the Lords who supported the legal rights of the electors. 
In his first reported speech, made on the 26th of January, 
1701, he declared that he could not think that the 
liberties of the people would be safer in any hands than 
those of the House of Commons, or that the influence of 
the Crown would be stronger there than in the Courts 
below. Walpole took the opposite view in defence of the 
electors, and spoke strongly against the doctrines brought 
forward by St. John. So fierce became the contest 
between Lords and Commons, the former being in 
harmony with public opinion, that Anne, who had vainly 
in her Speech at the opening of the Session in November, 
recommended moderation, prorogued Parliament early in 
April, 1704. So far St. John had identified himself with 
the most violent section of the Tories, and had, mainly 
by his oratorical powers, secured a position rarely attained 
by a politician of the age of five-and-twenty. His genius 
and ambition had already gained for him distinction in 
the House of Commons. It remained to be seen if he 
possessed those business qualities which go far to make a 
successful Minister. 



[ 21 ] 



CHAPTER II. 

ST. JOHN SECEETARY-AT-WAR AND AETEE. 

1704-1710. 

The extreme Tories leave the Government — Harley, St. John, 
and other moderate Tories are given places — Brilliant successes 
abroad — St. John's close relations with Marlborough — Elections 
of 1705 ; Whigs have majority in Parliament — Marlborough and 
Godolphin adopt Whig view of England's foreign policy — Harley 
intrigues against the Ministers — St. John's attitude towards the 
intrigue — The Gregg scandal-=-Eesignation of Harley, St. John, 
Harcourt, and Mantiell, 17i8 — Ministry becomes entirely Whig — • 
Failure of Jacobite rising in Scotland — St. John's reasons for his 
retirement — His life at Bucklersbury — The Sacheverell incident 
— Reasons of weakness of Whig Ministry: its fall, 1710 — Tory 
Ministry : St. John Secretary of State. 

The year 1704 was to see a great change in the fortunes 
of St. John. The war was popular and righteous, and 
received the support, not only of the Whigs, but also of 
the moderate Tories, in whose ranks Marlborough and 
Godolphin could still be numbered. But the extreme or 
Hio^h Tories disliked it from the first. Though they had 
agreed to support the war, they desired to settle, in 
accordance with their own views, England's relations to 
the Allies and the manner in which the war should be 
carried on. They considered England's insular position 
rendered her incapable of posing on the Continent as a 
military power. Eler strength lay on the sea. Her navy 
should therefore be made efficient : her maritime supre- 
macy should be firmly established, and the French ports, 



22 EENBY ST. JOHN, YISCO UNT BOLINGBBOKK 

commerce, and colonies should be vigorously attacked. 
Under certain circumstances our Allies might be sub- 
sidised, and, should the necessity arise of sending an 
armed force to help them in Europe, the scene of our 
operations should be in Spain, where a victory would 
rally the population to our side. One is irresistibly 
reminded of the general features of England's foreign 
policy followed by Pitt and his successors between 1793 
and 1815. 

Hatred of standing armies, opposition to a policy of 
active intervention on the Continent, dislike of a close 
alliance with the Germans and Dutch, remained through- 
out the war the sentiments of the extreme Tories. It 
was impossible, as the war grew fiercer, and military 
operations more extended, for them to work, like the 
Whigs, cordially with Marlborough and Godolphin, who 
were convinced that Louis would overrun Germany, 
conquer Holland, and restore the Pretender, if England 
stood aside and did not vigorously assist her Allies, 
especially in the Netherlands. It is thus easy to under- 
stand how it came about that the history of the reign to 
1708 is the history of the gradual drifting of power to 
the side of the Whigs, whose views on foreign policy and 
on the proper conduct of the war coincided with those 
of Godolphin and Marlborough. Their Tory associations, 
and the Queen's well-known views, however, prevented 
these Ministers from throwing in their lot with the Whigs 
as soon as a breach with the extreme Tories became in- 
evitable. They preferred to attempt to carry on the 
Government by the aid of the more moderate members 
of the Tory party. The first sign of the approaching 
split in the Tory party appeared in February, 1703, 
when Ormond was appointed to succeed Rochester as 
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 



ST. JOHN SECBETABY-AT-WAn AND AFTEB. 23 

Early in 1704 Jersey and Seymour, both violent 
Tories, were deprived of their offices. Nottingham, who 
had taken up a position of rivalry to Godolphin, urged in 
vain the dismissal of the Dukes of Devonshire and Somerset 
from the Privy Council. Finding his influence gone, he 
resigned, and his resignation was accepted. Blaithwayte, 
the Secretary-at-War, followed. Their places were filled 
for the most part by moderate Tories ; Jersey and 
Seymour were succeeded by Kent and Mansell, the former 
a moderate Whig ; Harley, who had suggested most of 
the chancres in the Government, succeeded Nottiuirham 
as Secretary of State, and to St. John was given the 
control of the War Office with the title of Secretary-at- 
War and of the Marines. 

Until 1706 the Government was not strongly partisan. 
It was based on the principle that the Sovereign had the 
right to choose the Ministers. Queen Anne, Marlborough, 
and Harley, all desired that, though the Tory element 
should be supreme, members of both parties should be 
included in each administration, and, although, circum- 
stances combined to force Marlborough and Godolphin in 
'1708, St. John during the last years of Anne's reign, and 
the ministers of George I. and George II. to discard this 
doctrine, it by no means completely died out of English 
political life. In the middle of the eighteenth century, 
the degeneration of party into faction led the elder Pitt to 
attempt to form a Ministry of tiie ablest men of all parties, 
while the circumstances of his day and the security of his 
title enabled George III. at many important crises both to 
choose and to dismiss his Ministers at his own caprice. 

In the re-constitution of the Government in 1704 
Harley took a leading part. By birth he was connected 
with the Nonconformists, anti had supported the Revolu- 
tion. After the Peace of Ryswick he became the leader 



24 HENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

of the Tories, more by accident than by conviction. 
Ambitious, and not over-scrupulous, he had no sympathy 
with their High Church or monarchical views. While, 
like Burke, anxious to see all royal influence upon 
the House of Commons abolished, his great aim was 
to secure the independence of the House of ministerial 
control. Hence he was strongly opposed to party Govern- 
ment with its Cabinet system, and desired to restore the old 
authority of the Privy Council. Consequently he was always 
involved in plots and intrigues against the existing govern- 
ment, even though he might be a member of the Ministry 
itself Though ostensibly a Tory, he was never an un- 
compromising one, and was often a great hindrance to 
the realisation of their favourite schemes. The theory of 
Government by means of a Coalition was very popular 
with many eminent politicians of the day. Marlborough 
and Godolphin never explicitly gave up the theory ; 
Shrewsbury, Argyle, and Somerset, all shared Harley's 
belief in it ; the Queen up to the day of her death was 
always iji favour of putting it into execution. Harley's 
appointment as Secretary of State was, therefore, popular 
and intelhgible. 

He was, moreover, trusted by all parties. He had a 
great reputation for wisdom. He had considerable 
knowledge of individuals. He was a most successful 
party manager, and had undoubted political genius. His 
views were not extreme. To Marlborough such a man 
as Harley w^as invaluable. 

The appointment of St. John, then only twenty-six 
years old, was more startling. A great European war 
was raging, and no one could say what the result would 
be. Blenheim had not yet been won ; Marlborough was 
hampered at every turn by the Allies. At home the 
Grovernment was face to face with a powerful and angry 



ST. JOHN SECBETABT-AT-WAB AND AFTEB. 25 

Opposition. The appointment of so young a man as St. 
John was a dangerous experiment, especially as he 
had till lately been regarded as a violent Tory. His 
biographers ask if his appointment was due to his own 
abilities, to the influence of Harley, or to the favour of 
Marlborough. B[is abilities had been amply proved ; he 
had been a close friend and ally of Harley since he first 
entered Parliament. But it was mainly to the favour of 
Blarlborough that his appointment was due. There seems 
little doubt that St. John was well known to, if not a 
particular favourite of JMarlborough. In Letter VII. 
on The Studij and Love of Hidory St. John speaks of 
Marlborough as " that great man, whose faults I knew, 
whose virtues I admired ; and whose memory, as the 
greatest general and as tlie . greatest Minister that our 
country or perhaps any other has produced, I honour." 
Marlborough himself wrote to Godolphin in July, 1704, 
in the following terms : " 1 am glad that you are pleased 
with St. John's diligence, I am confident that he will 
never deceive you." In later days St. John himself 
declared that he was indebted neither to Harley nor 
Marlborough for his appointment, but to the position he 
had already gained in Parliament. But, whether appointed 
by interest or merit, he well justified the confidence 
reposed in him. Though he had hitherto placed his rare 
oratorical powers at the service of the extreme members 
of his party, his ambition prevailed over his early political 
connections, and for four years he acted loyally with the 
moderate Tories. 

From 1704 to 1708, during a period of extraordinary 
anxiety abroad and of constant and ever-increasing party 
struggles at home, St. John proved him.self possessed of 
an amount of ability, energy, and calm foresight which 
marked him out as a leader of men^ His first two 



26 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

years of office were rendered famous by reason of a 
series of marvelloas successes abroad. Blenheim, won 
in August 1704, saved the Empire and Vienna from 
French invasion, and placed Bavaria in subjection to the 
Emperor. Bamillies, fought in May, 1706, secured a 
barrier for the Dutch against French aggression. The 
battle of Turin, won by Eugene in September of the 
same year, saved Savoy, and enabled the Imperial 
troops to occupy North Italy and Naples. Portugal had 
joined the Allies as early as 1703 ; Gibraltar had been 
captured in 1704. In the autumn of 1705 the Archduke 
Charles had been proclaimed, and accepted as king, by a 
large portion of the Spanish nation. It seemed in 1706 
that the neck of the Spanish difficulty was broken. In 
addition to these disasters to the French cause, the 
wretched condit'on of the French finances, Louis' un- 
fortunate choice of generals, and the still smouldering 
discontent in the Cevennes, all told in favour of the Allies. 
Durino- these years St. John was in constant correspondence 
with Marlborough, writing an enthusiastic letter after 
Blenheim, sympathising with him over the tiresome 
conduct of our German and Dutch Allies in 1705, 
when their dilatoriness prevented the achievement of any 
marked success in the Netherlands, and congratulating 
him later on the famous victory of Kamillies. " France 
and faction," he wrote, " are the only enemies England 
has to fear, and your grace will conquer both ; at least, 
while you beat the French, you give a strength to the 
Government which the other dares not contend with." 

The brilliant successes abroad seem rather to have 
intensified than assuaged party conflict at home. It is 
interesting to mark how the responsibilities of office had 
changed St. John. From a reckless Tory advocate, he 
had become a moderate, statesmanlike man of business. 



ST, JOHN SECBETAR T-A T- WAB AND AFTEB. 27 

In the autumn of 1704 the Tories, never enthusiastic 
about the war, insisted on coupling with the address of 
congratulation to Marlborough for the victory of Blenheim 
congratulations to Rooke, the Tory admiral, on a drawn 
battle in the Mediterranean. The more reckless of the 
Tories then resolved to force the Bill against Occasional 
Conformity through the House of Lords by tacking it to 
the Land Tax Bill. Li the majority which defeated a 
motion to that effect St. John's name was found. In the 
spring of 1705 Parliament was dissolved. The Tories 
had lost the popularity they enjoyed at the beginning of 
the reign. Their arbitrary policy towards the Aylesbury 
voters, which threatened, a few weeks before the dissolu- 
tion of Parliament, to result in another deadlock between 
the two Houses, their faction's conduct, their jealousy of 
Marlborough, and their well-known dislike of the war, all 
tended to throw public feeling on the side of the AVhigs. 
The question before the country was that of foreign 
policy. And the nation had to decide between an insular 
and a cosmopolitan policy. The Tory cry, that the 
Church was in Danger, was of no avail, and in the new 
Parliament which met in October the Whigs had a 
majority in both Houses, and a Whig Speaker, Smith, 
was elected in place of Harley. Anne had already been 
prevailed upon by Godolphin and the Marlboroughs to 
dismiss Wright, the Lord Keeper, an old High Church 
Tory lawyer, and to appoint in his place William 
Cowper, the most graceful Whig orator in the House of 
Commons. 

St. John had been again returned for Wootton Bassett, 
and till his resignation in 1708 saw the Tory party 
commit blunder after blunder, and the Ministry forced to 
rely more and more on the Whigs for support. 

Anne was alienated from the Tories by the proposal of 



28 EENB Y ST. JOHN, VIS CO UNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

the Tory Peers that the presumptive heir should be 
invited to reside in England,— a mistake of which the 
Whigs cleverly took advantage. When Parliament met 
in December, 1706, the Whigs were stronger than ever. 
With Godolphin and Marlborough they had come to a 
fairly definite understanding. In 1707, in spite of the 
opposition of Rochester, N"ottingham, and other extreme 
Tories, they carried, with the concurrence of the greater 
part of the moderate Tories, the Union with Scotland, 
thus defending the Parliamentary Settlement from a 
danger at home which had begun to be serious. Every 
fresh success abroad too strengthened the Whig party. 
The war was their war. Each new victory was their 
victory. And after Ramillies it became evident that it 
was impossible for the war still to be carried on by 
Tories. A few weeks after that battle Louis had opened 
negotiations for peace. By the terms of the Grand 
Alliance it had been stipulated that the Jciyigdoms of 
France and Spain shoidd never he united or governed 
hy the same person, that the dominions and commerce 
of the Dutch should he secured, and that a reasonable 
satisfaction should he given to the Emperor and the 
English King. But Louis' proposals were similar to 
the terms of the Second Partition Treaty, which had 
been so unpopular in England. He offered a compro- 
mise, according to which Philip was to have Naples, 
Sicily, and Milan. This compromise, which was in many 
ways unsatisfactory, was rejected by Marlborough and the 
Emperor. 

In Letter YTII. on The Study of History, St. John 
writes as follows : — " It will not, because it cannot, be 
denied that all the ends of the Grand Alliance might 
have been obtained by a peace in 1706." He then 
proceeds to show that France, defeated abroad, was 



ST. JOHN SECBETAB Y-A T- WAB AND AFTBB. 29 

exhausted by the burdens of the war, that the charge of 
the war to England and Holland was increasing annually, 
and that a peace in 1706 would have been glorious and 
satisfactory. This was the view taken by the Tories, and 
henceforward they strenuously opposed the continuance of 
the war. The views of the Whigs were clearly shown in 
a celebrated Resolution which passed both Houses of 
Parliament in October, 1707, that no peace '"' can he safe 
or honour ahle for her Majesty and her allies, if Spain and 
the Spanish West Indies he suffered to continue in the 
power of the House of Bourhon.''' The objects of the war 
were no longer those expressed in the terms of the Grand 
Alliance. The Whigs had adopted a distinctly new 
policy, which aimed at the continuance of the war till 
France was reduced to the position of a second-rate power. 
But there was great justification for the Whig view 
of the danger of permitting the monarchies of France 
and Spain to be controlled by Bourbons. The fear 
inspired by Louis XIV. was general, and it was held by 
Whigs and Tories alike that the King of France must be 
forced to give up Spain. It was honestly believed, by 
men as cool and sagacious as Marlborough, that the 
safety and liberties of Europe would be in immediate 
danger if Spain and the West Indies were left to the 
House of Bourbon. The course of events proved con- 
clusively, not only that the Whig fears were chimerical, 
but that it was impossible to wrest Spain from Philip, 
The new policy on which England entered in the autumn 
of 1707 was none the less in harmony with the prevailing 
ideas of by far the larger portion of the nation. "A 
whole generation," writes Mr. Wyon (vol. ii. p. 339), 
"had grown up to regard Louis XIV. as a monster of 
ambition, with a mission fcom the devil to make slaves 
and Papists of the whole human race, a perfidious tyrant 



30 EENB Y ST. JOHN, VISCO UNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

with whom it was useless to think of entering into a 
compact, whom it was absolutely necessary to bind with 
chains of iron." 

In his later writings St. John complains bitterly of the 
Whig change of plan. 

" The war was Vise and just before the change, because necessary to 
maintain that equality among the powers of Europe on which the public 
peace and common prosperity depends." And, he continues, the war 
was " unwise and unjust after the change." 

At the time, however, St. John made no opposition to 
the Resolution. As Secretary-at-War he was occupied 
with the affairs of the EngUsh in Spain. In April, 1707, 
the Allies had suffered an overwhelming defeat at Almanza. 
It was clear that the Dutch thought only of acquiring 
towns in the Netherlands, and that the Emperor was 
indifferent to Spanish affairs so long as he secured his 
Italian conquests. If the war was to be continued 
in Spain, England would have to bear the whole expense. 
It is obvious that, through the clear-cut division between 
Whigs and Tories on the question of the continuance of 
the war, the retention of office by St. John was becoming 
difficult. The Ministry was now almost entirely Whig, 
the objects of the war had changed, and the Tories, 
convinced that the victories of Marlborough, Eugene, and 
Peterborough had satisfied the ends of the war, opposed 
its continuance. St. John could not possibly have con- 
tinued much longer a Tory member of a Whig Ministry. 
Events, perhaps fortunately, came to his aid and forced 
him to retire from office. 

For some time past Godolphin had been compelled, 
owing to his compact with the Whigs, to solicit from 
Anne places of emolument that fell vacant for members of 
that party. Anne resented this interference, and allowed 
herself to be influenced by Harley and Abigail Hill in 



ST. JOHN SECBETABY-AT-WAB AND AFTEB. 31 

making appointments. In supporting the Queen in her 
resentment against her leading advisers, Harley was only 
following his usual course of policy. The elections of 
1705 had increased the hopes of the Whigs, and it 
became obvious that they now aimed at securing an 
undivided supremacy in the Government. Besides, the 
clauses in the Act of Settlement which he had introduced, 
in order to revive the power of the Privy Council as a 
check on the Cabinet system and on the Executive Power, 
had been repealed. He saw too that xvlarlborough must 
perforce look more and more to the Whigs for support 
in his war policy. Nothing remained, then, but to bring 
about a rearrangement of the Administration, in which a 
more perfect balance of antagonistic interests should be 
maintained. Neither Godolphin nor the Whigs had any 
reason to complain of Harley 's action. His intrigues 
were perfectly justifiable. The Government of 1704 v\as 
a Coalition Government, and was recognised as such 
by both Harley and Marlborough. But from 1706 
Marlborough and Godolphin aided the Whigs in their 
efforts to form a Government almost entirely AVhig. As 
usual, the Whigs were aiming at securing the monopoly 
of offices, and Harley was quite justified in opposing them 
to the utmost of his power. 

Thus, during a great struggle abroad, when union was 
of the utmost consequence, the Ministry found itself 
weakened by the existence of intrigues within its own 
ranks. As early as the autumn of 1706, keen observers 
like the Duchess of Marlborough not only knew of the 
intrigues of Harley and Mrs. Masham, but began to 
suspect that St. John was also implicated. In October, 
Godolphin wrote to Marlborough, that the Duchess had 
told him " that Mr. Harley, Mr. St. John, and one or • 
two more of your particular friends were underhand 



32 EENB Y ST. JOHN, VISCO UNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

endeavouring to bring all the difficulties they could think 
of upon the public business in the next session." But, as 
has been already shown, Godolphin and Marlborough, by 
acting in contravention of that arrangement, by which the 
moderate Tories had taken office in 1704-, had no reason 
to be surprised if attempts were made to turn the tables 
on them. Their position between the High Tories and 
the advancing Whigs was certainly a difficult one, but 
Barley's conduct was as defensible as Marlborough's and 
Godolphin's. 

St. John himself alludes to the intrigues in a letter to 
Marlborough in November, 1706 : — 

" There are," he wrote, •' some restless spirits, who are foolishly 
imagined to be the heads of a party, who make much noise and have 
no real strength, that expect the Queen, crowned with success abroad, 
and governing without blemish at home, should court thern at the 
expense of her own authority." 

It is very doubtful if St. John was at this time Harley's 
accomplice. He ends the letter above quoted by assuring 
the Duke that he has no interest in view but "the 
Queen's service, and ray gratitude and duty to you, who 
have tied me, for ever." There is no ground beyond the 
suspicions of the jealous Duchess for thinking that St. 
John was acting basely. Marlborough was at the height 
of his power, and, from the lowest point of view, a 
consideration of his own interests would probably have 
kept St. John true to his benefactor and friend. The 
intrigues, however, became serious as time went on. The 
introduction into the Ministry of Sunderland, Marl- 
borough's son-in-law, a decided Whig, tended to alienate 
the Queen still more from tlie Duchess. All through 
1707 it was obvious that Harley was the centre of the 
• intrigues which were opposed to the interests of Marl- 
borough and Godolphin. Sunderland, writing to Marl- 



ST. JOHN SEGRETABY-AT-WAU AND AFTER. 33 

borough, spoke of him as " the author of all the tricks 
played here " ; but Harley's own protestations completely 
deceived the Dake, and he continued to form schemes 
against the supremacy of Godolphin and Marlborough in 
the Cabinet. When the first United Parliament of Great 
Britain met in October, 1707, the Whigs, whose diffi- 
culties had been greatly increased by the short-sighted 
and selfish policy of the Emperor and the Dutch, had 
serious grounds for complaint as well as for uneasiness. 
Anne had shown her real leanings by appointing Tories 
to the sees of Chester and Exeter, and a great loss had 
just been sustained by the partial destruction of a convoy 
to Lisbon by a French fleet. 

During this session, in which the plan of the war 
was altered, St. John's laboxirs " were very great. The 
afifairs of Spain v/ere under consideration, and he was 
closely examined as to the condition of the English troops 
in the Peninsula. He had to show a minute acquaintance 
with figures and accounts. His frequent statements in 
Parliament gave ample proof of great administrative 
powers and of very considerable business qualities. All 
evidence seems to show that his work had been satis- 
factorily done. Indeed, throughout his life, distaste to 
hard work was never one of his failings. Whatever he 
took in hand was always thoroughly accomplished. His 
great powers of concentration, his wonderful memory, his 
power of writing clear businesslike letters, all combined 
to make him an excellent Secretary-at-War. But his 
labours were drawing to an end. Towards the close of 
the year Harley's intrigues seem to have developed 
into a real Bedchamber Plot, the object of which was, 
according to report, to replace Godolphin by a more 
pronounced Tory. Swift alludes to this project, as " the 
greatest piece of court skill that has been acted these 

D 



34 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

many years." The Whigs were in a great state of alarm, 
while in the city the rumour of the removal of Godolphin 
caused a semi-panic. In this struggle, Harley, Mrs. 
Masham, and the Queen were pitted against the tyranny 
of the Marlboroughs backed by the Whig leaders. 

The Queen's influence on politics was so great that for 
a time Godolphin and Marlborough, though supported by 
the W^hig leaders, could only remonstrate with her upon 
her Tory predilections. Remonstrances having no effect, 
they seized with alacrity upon the famous Gregg Scandal, 
which proved that Harley had conducted his business 
as Secretary of State with great negligence, and that 
the clerk Gregg had given information to the French 
ministers. Supported by the Whigs, Marlborough and 
Godolphin insisted on Harley's dismissal. 

On February the 11th Harley resigned, and was 
followed by Simon Harcourt the Attorney-General, 
Mansell, and St. John. There is no difficulty in ex- 
plaining St. John's resignation. His close connection 
with Harley, coupled with the complete ascendency of 
the Whigs, to whom he could not fail to be an object of 
suspicion, sufficiently accounts for his action. He re- 
signed, carrying with him the reputation of being a 
brilliant and successful Secretary-at-War. Marlborough 
had found him a most useful colleague, and in a letter to 
St. John in October, 1709, he expresses a hope that he 
may begin to entertain more favourable thoughts of the 
world in which he "is qualified to do so much good." 
He had clearly demonstrated that he was the ablest man 
in the Tory ranks. During his tenure of office, the 
English had won victories which have made the reign 
of Queen Anne rival even that of Elizabeth in splendour. 

The objects of England in the war had been plain and 
straightforward, such as commended themselves to all 



ST, JOHN SECBETABT-AT-WAB AND AFTEB. 35 

moderate men. It was only at the end of 1707 that the 
Whigs had boastfully and imprudently expressed the 
opinion that no Bourbon should be permitted to rule in 
Spain. It was well, then, that St. John should retire 
before he became closely associated with a policy which 
was doomed to failure. He was succeeded as Secretary- 
at-War by the rismg politician, Kobert Walpole, who had 
already secured the full confidence of the Whig party. 

Parliament was dissolved in April, 1708, and at the 
new elections the nation declared itself strongly in favour of 
the Whigs. An attempted Jacobite invasion of Scotland 
in the spring had not only found the English Govern- 
ment unprepared, but had clearly demonstrated the 
universal hatred with which the English nation was 
regarded in Scotland. The, Jacobite chances of success 
were never so good as in 1708. It was natural, therefore, 
that all advocates of the Union should regard with alarm 
the possibility of the return to office of Tories like 
Rochester, Nottingham, and Haversham, who had pro- 
tested against the Union. The firm establishment of a 
united W'hig administration meant the resolute mainten- 
ance of the Union and the active prosecution of the war. 

St. John did not seek re-election. He retired to his 
country house at Bucklersbury, which had belonged to his 
father-in-law, who had died in the previous year. It was 
situated in Berkshire, about twenty-five miles from 
Windsor and from Newbury ; formerly belonging to the 
Reading Abbey, it had been granted after the Reformation 
to the son of Jack of Newbury. There, for two years, St. 
John devoted himself to the study of philosophy and 
literature. The reasons for St. John's retirement from 
politics are not difficult to fathom. Prudential motives, 
no doubt, played a considerable part in his decision. 
His interests and those of Harley were closely identified. 

D 2 



36 EBNBY ST, JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE.. 

Marlborough and Godolphin had succeeded in forming/ 
a united Whig administration, which included the 
great names of Somers, Cowper, Orford, Halifax, and 
Sunderland, but in so doing had lost the aflection and 
esteem of the Queen. They had definitely broken with 
tlie moderate Tories. It was impossible for St. John to 
continue to act as Secretary-at-War without throwing in 
liis lot with the Whigs. Then, again, as long as the 
nation was satisfied with the continuance of the war and 
was still intent on the annihilation of the power of France, 
it was useless to continue to oppose the Whigs in Parlia- 
ment. It was better to watch events from outside. His 
obligations to Marlborough must also have largely 
influenced his decision. To Marlborough he owed his 
appointment as Secretary-at-War ; with Marlborough he 
had, during his tenure of office, been on the closest and 
most confidential termso Marlborough's power and 
influence showed no signs of diminution. In July 
Marlborough won the great battle of Oudenarde, and 
St. John wrote at once from London to congratulate 
the great general. At the end of the letter he 
says : — 

" The death of a grandfather " (Sir "Walter St. John died at Battersea, 
in 1708, at the lipe age of eighty-seven) " brought me to this place, from 
whence I am preparing to return again to the country, in the midst of 
which retreat I shall inviolably preserve in my heart that gratitude for 
all your favours, that zeal for your service, and that true, unaffected love 
for your person which I have ufver knowingly departed from. 
" I am, with the greatest respect, my Lord, etc., 

" H. St. John." 

To the astonishment of his friends and acquaintances 
the gay, worldly St. John, who by his wonderful oratory 
and riotous life had become one of the best known 
men in London, thus calmly withdrew from public life, 
and devoted himself to quiet studies in his country retreat. 



ST. JOHN SEGBETABY-AT-WAB AND AFTEB. 37 

He always looked back on these two years of retirement 
at Bucklersbury with the greatest satisfaction. In his 
letter to Lord Bathurst on The True Use of Betirement 
and Study ^ written many years later, he speaks of his love 
of study and his desire of knowledge : — 

" This love and this rlesiro I have felt all my life, and I am not 
quite a stranger to this industry and application, 'ihere has been 
something always ready to whisper in my ear while I ran the course 
of pleasure and of business, ' Solve senescentem mature sanus equuin.' 
But my genius, unlike the demon of Socrates, whispered so softly that 
very often I heard him not, in the hurry of those passions by which I 
was transporte'l. Some calmer liours there were ; in them I hearkened 
to him. Reflection had often its turn, and the love of study and the 
desire of knowledge have never quite abandoned me." And he 
continues : " When we have secured the necessaries, thei e may be time 
to atnuse onrtelves with the superfluities and even with the trifles of 
life. ' Dulce est desipere,' said Horace ; ' Vive la bagatelle ! ' says 
Swift. I oppose neither; Udt the Epicurean, much less the Christian 
pliiloropher; l)nt I ins'st that a principal part of tlie>e amusements be 
the amusements of stndy and reliection. of reading and conversation." 

Study, reflection, reading, and conversation occupied the 
two years of St. John's enforced absence from the political 
struo-o^les in Parliament. 

During his retirement, Louis XIV. made at the Hague, 
in 1709, a very determined effort to procure peace. In 
his later writings St. John strongly insists that peace 
should certainly have been made between July, 1708, and 
the spring of 1709. 

"It was high time indeed to save our country from absolute insol- 
vency and bankrujitcy by putting an end to a scheme of conduct 
which the prejudices of a party, the whims of some particular men, 
the private interest of mere, and the avarice and ambition of our 
allies .... alone maintained." 

But the chiefs of the Whig party were determined that 
no peace should be made Jill they had secured what they 
considered to be a complete triumph over Louis XIV. As 



38 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

a complete triumph meant in their eyes not only the 
expulsion of Philip from Spain, but his expulsion at the 
hands of his grandfather, it is a matter of little wonder 
that Louis preferred to carry on the war. The war had 
become unjust and unnecessary. In September, 1709, 
Malplaquet was won, and again Louis tried, at the 
Conference of Gertruydenburg, to come to terms with the 
Allies. The English Ministers were this time more 
inclined to treat, but after long negotiation they yielded to 
the importunities of the Emperor and the Duke of Savoy, 
and the war continued. The conduct of the Whigs was 
absolutely unjustifiable. The Archduke Charles, for 
whom we were ostensibly fighting, was now heir to the 
Austrian dominions. If he became Xing of Spain, the 
Empire of Charles Y. might be revived. Philip was the 
chosen and adored King of the Spaniards. The conquest 
of Spain was impossible, and England was bearing the 
Greater part of the expense of a war in which our Allies 
sought their own ends. 

During these years, St. John watched the course of 
events, from his country seat. No sooner bad a united 
Whio' Ministry been formed, than it began to lose favour 
with the country. Outwardly it was strong, but, from a 
variety of causes, its position was gradually undermined. 
Anne had always disliked the Whigs, on account of their 
religious and political opinions. Since the resignation of 
Harley, she had broken with Godolphin and Marlborough, 
and only retained them in her service till an opportunity 
occurred to replace them by men she trusted. Her final 
quarrel with the Duchess of Madborough, too, contributed 
not a little to encourage the enemies of the Whig junto, 
just at the time when the ranks of those enemies were, 
by Harley's skill, reinforced by such prominent names 
as those of Somerset, Argyle, and Shrewsbury. The 



ST. JOHN SECBETABI-AT-WAB AND AFTEB. 39 

influence of Somerset, Argyle, and Shrewsbury on the 
history of the reign was immense. Nominally Whigs, 
they were always opposed to the undisputed supremacy of 
one party. They largely contributed to the fall of the 
Whigs in 1710 ; they were the authors of the coup-cUetat 
at the end of Anne's reign, which ruined the Tory party. 

There was no doubt that the Whigs, at the beginning 
of 1710, had failed to secure the confidence of the Queen, 
and had lost much of the support of the people. The 
middle class had learned to regard the war administration 
with disfavour. The ever-increasing burdens, and the 
danger of a financial crisis brought home to them the 
necessity of peace. It would appear from St. John's ex- 
pression of his views at a much later period that he too 
shared the general distrust of the funding system which 
had been introduced at the Revolution, and that he too 
was as ignorant as the majority of his countrymen of the 
capability of the nation to bear the burden of the National 
Debt. "It is impossible," he says, in his Dissertation on 
Parties, "to look back without indignation at the 
mysterious iniquity by which this system has been 
Imatured, or horror to the consequences that may ensue 
from it" (Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iii. p. 296). The 
enormous increase in the public debt under the influence 
of the funding system had aroused almost universal ap- 
prehension at the very moment when the motives of the 
Ministers in prolonging the war were being anxiously 
criticised. It was thought that an honourable and 
profitable peace might have been made at the Hague in 
1709, or at Gertruydenburg in 1710. The suspicion was 
gaining ground that the war was being unduly protracted 
for party purposes. 

Marlborough too had temporarily lost much of his 
popularity by his well-known love of wealth, by the 



40 HENB7 ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE, 

large amounts of public money absorbed by bis connections, 
and by his demand of the Captain-Generalship for life. 
Men feared he might become a military dictator. " The 
shadow of Cromwell," says Mr. Lecky, "fell darkly 
across the path of Marlborough." 

In London the ISTaturalisation Act, passed early in 
17G9, by which foreign Protestants could be naturalised, 
had roused an excitement and indignation somewhat 
similar to that felt at the present day at the presence of 
masses of needy foreigners in all parts of the metropolis. 
But in Anne's reign the indignation at the appearance of 
a great number of Germans, mostly from the Palatinate, 
was due, not to social and economic causes, but to 
a supposed danger to the Church of England, from their 
presence. These Germans, though Protestants, were not 
Church of England men, and they would, it was said, 
increase the ranks of the Nonconformists. The fanaticism 
of the masses was appealed to, and London became 
strongly anti-Whig. 

It was at this very time, when public feeling was 
running against the Whigs, that Godolphin made his 
momentous and unfortunate decision to impeach Sach- 
everell. This celebrated clergyman had preached 
sermons in 1709, at Derby and at St. Paul's, in which 
he denounced the Whigs, attacked Godolphin and 
Marlborough directly, inveighed against toleration to 
Nonconformists and inculcated plainly the duty of passive 
obedience. Li spite of the wish of Somerset and Marl- 
borough not to make a political matter of Sachevereirs 
sermons, the majority of the Ministers persisted in seeing 
in those sermons a direct impeachment of the principles 
of the Eevolution. Entirely underrating the strength of 
PJigh Church Toryism, and ignoring the immense in- 
fluence of the ecclesiastical sentiment, they allowed their 



ST. JOHN SECBETABY-AT- WAB AND AFTEB. 41 

rage to get the better of their discretion, and determined 
to assert the aulhority of Parliament over the Church. 
The prosecution of Sacheverell roused a burst of en- 
thusiasm on behalf of the Church, from one end of the 
country to the other. The war was forgotten. Men only 
remembered that, their religion was in danger. In the 
provinces the excitement was fully as strong as that 
shown in London. The trial ended in March, 1710, and 
Parliament was prorogued early in April. Taking advan- 
tage of the change of feeling in the country, Anne then 
removed Kent, and appointed Shrewsbury in his place. 
That astute politician, who had personal grievances 
against the Whigs, had for some time past carried on 
secret intrigues with Harley. His unerring political 
instinct always led him to espouse the winning cause, and 
his acceptance of office on April the 13th proved to be the 
first step in the downfall of the Whig Ministry. In 
June, at Harley's suggestion, the unpopular Sunderland 
was dismissed from office, and Dartmouth, a moderate 
Tory, received his appointment. In August, Anne, at the 
instigation of her Tory advisers, who now had ascertained 
that the nation had turned against the Whigs, and that, 
come what might, there was no fear of Marlborouo-h's 
resignation, dismissed Godolphin; with his fall, one of 
the most famous Ministries of the annals of English 
history came to an end. 

With the Sacheverell Trial Harley's intrigues with 
Anne had undoubtedly assumed grave importance. 
Scribe's " Un Yerre d'Eau " gives an interesting, thouoh 
unhistorical and exaggerated, account of the influence of 
a court intrigue upon the fate of Europe. There is little 
evidence that St. John took any part in this intrif^ue. At 
the end of 1709 there is a letter of the Duchess of 
Marlborough to Anne, in which that jealous and lynx- 



42 HENBY ST. JOHN, VISGO UNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

eyed lady shows that she suspected the existence of some 
conspiracy. 

" And who are those," she writes, " that you told me you had 
somewhere but a few inconsiderable men, that have undertaken to 
carry Mrs. Masham up to a pitch of greatness, from which she would 
be thrown down with infamy in a fortnight ? What did some people 
in your service ride lately about from her to Mr. Harley at London, 
and thence to Mr. St. John's in the country, and then back again to 
her, and so again to London, as if they rid post all the while, but 
about some notable scheme, which, I dare swear, would make the 
world veiy merry if it were known ? " 

St. John, no doubt, at this time, just as in 1707, was 
fully aware of the private colloquies of Harley with the 
Queen. That he was in their confidence is unlikely. 
Neither Anne nor Harley had any wish to make a clean 
sweep of the Whigs from the administration. A com- 
bination of moderate men chosen from both parties, and 
forming " a new party, which should look to the sovereign 
in person as its chief," would have suited their views 
admirably. St. John had so far shown no sympathy 
with Harley's elaborate scheme for forming a mixed 
administration, and Harley had certainly shown no in- 
tention of giving St. John a prominent position in 
the Ministry which he had designed. Harley at first, 
with the entire concurrence of Anne, and in accord- 
ance with his invariable views, attempted to form a 
Coalition Ministry, including some of the principal Whigs. 
If Cowper and Walpole would retain their offices, he was 
ready to give St. John and Harcourt only subordinate 
places. But, in his hour of triumph, Harley found that 
all his hopes of forming an ideal administration composed 
of men of both parties were dashed to the ground. The 
Whigs refused to join him, or to entertain any idea of a 
compromise. He was compelled to throw himself entirely 
on the Tories, and in September a Tory Government was 



ST. JOHN SECBETABY-AT- WAB AND AFTEB. 43 

formed, which included Harley as virtual Prime Minister 
and Chief Commissioner of the Treasury, the other 
members being Poullet, lAIansel, and Paget ; Rochester, 
President of the Council ; Harcourt, Lord Keeper ; 
Buckingham, Steward of the Household ; Granville, 
Secretary-at-War ,; Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland ; 
Shrewsbury, Lord Chamberlain ; Somerset, Master of the 
Horse ; Newcastle (a Whig), Privy Seal (succeeded m 
Sept. 1711 by Robinson, Bishop of Bristol) ; Dartmouth, 
and St. John, Secretaries of State. 



U EENBY ST. JOHN: VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOEEJ 



CHAPTEE III. 

BOLINGBEOKE'S DILOMACY : THE PEACE OF UTEECHT, 

1710-1713. 

Party spirit runs high — St. John's elevation to the post of Secretary of 
State — Feelings of the Tory party — The elections of 1710 — Tory 
foreign policy — Peace necessary — Difficulties in the way of peace 
— The Examiner — Number Ten — Employment of Swift — ^Violence 
of the Tory squires — The October Club — Discontent at Harley's 
indecision — Guiscard's attack on Harley — Its effect — Harley 
becomes Earl of Oxford — Growing rivalry between Oxford and 
St. John — England's true relation to the Allies considered — 
Negotiations opened with France — Death of Joseph I., April, 1711 
— Failure of St. John's expedition to North America — Arrival of 
Mesnager — Preliminary articles signed in September — Discovery 
by the Allies of England's intention to make peace — General ex- 
citement — St. John's measures — Publication of The Conduct of the 
Allies — The famous debate in the House of Lords — Defeat of 
the Government — Dismissal of Marlborough— Creation of Tory 
Peers — St. John continues his "strong remedies" — Opening of 
conferences at Utrecht, Jan. 29, 1712 — Protracted character of the 
negotiations — St. John raised to the Peerage — Visits Paris and 
sees Louis XIV. — Charges against Bolingbroke — Shrewsbury 
sent to Paris, January, 1713, to hasten the negotiations — 
Bolingbroke's ultimatum — The treaties signed — Criticism of the 
Peace of Utrecht, of the means by which it was brought about, 
and of its terms — The greatness of Bolingbroke's work — He 
anticipated the policy of Chatham — Place occupied in English 
and French history by the Peace of Utrecht. 

The history of the last four years of the reign of Anne 
has yet to be written. Swift was too involved in the 
politics of the time to write more than a party pamphlet, 
full of inaccuracies and partial from beginning to end. 



TEE PEACE OF VTBEGHT. 45 

St. John himself, after his return from exile, seriously- 
meditated writing a history of Anne's reign, and sketched 
a general plan of the proposed work. Unfortunately this 
idea was never carried out, and his seventh and eisfhth 
Letters on History remain as an introduction to the 
greater work. At no previous or succeeding period has 
the English nation worked itself into such a pitch of 
excitement ; at no other period have such momentous 
questions awaited decision. Never before or since have 
antagonisms been keener or more bitter. Neither the 
strong party feelings engendered by the course of the 
French Revolution, nor the antagonisms caused in late 
years by the Irish question, are to be compared to the 
tremendous issues which divided the Whigs and Tories in 
the four last years of Queen Anne's reign. Party spirit 
ran as high in London as in Florence or Verona in the 
Middle Ages. When one reads how the Tory gentlemen 
thirsted for the blood of the late Whig Ministers, and 
how, on the accession of George, the exultant Whigs 
clamoured for revenge on the authors of the Peace of 
Utrecht, one is irresistibly reminded of the feuds of the 
Bianchi and Neri, or of the rivalries of Capulet and 
Montague. The W^hig and Tory ladies sat on different 
sides of the opera ; they carried different kinds of fans ; 
they " patched " on different sides of the face. " They 
have made schisms in the play-house," wrote Swift ; "and 
each have their particular sides at the opera : and, when 
a man changes his party, he must invariably count upon 
the loss of his mistress." Old friendships which had 
existed for years were broken. Swift and Addison 
became ordinary acquaintances ; Prior was avoided by 
his old political friends ; the friendship between Marl- 
borough and St. John came to an end. 

With the exception of the younger Pitt, it is impossible 



46 HENBT ST. JOHN, VISCO UNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

to find an instance of a statesman of St. John's years 
being placed in so important an office at such a critical 
epoch in our history. He had certainly shown unexpected 
capacity as Secretary-at-War, but he was best known as 
a brilliant orator, an excellent conversationalist, a man of 
wit and fashion, a hard drinker, a gay companion, a 
modern Alcibiades. In spite of the Queen's personal 
dislike of him, he was suddenly elevated to a position in a 
Government which was called upon to administer the 
affairs of the country at an unusually grave crisis. St. 
John, no doubt, owed his position partly to his oratorical 
power, partly to his knowledge of French, partly to the 
lack of ability among the Tories. In his Letter to Sir 
William Wyndham he confesses that the Tories came 
into office at that crisis with no very high notion of public 
duty : — 

" I am afraid that we came to Court in the same disposition as all 
parties have done ; that the principal spring of our actions was to 
have the government of the State in our hands ; that our principal 
views were the conservation of this power, great employment to our- 
selves, and great opportunities of rewarding those who had helped to 
raise us, and of hurting those who stood in opposition to us. It is, 
however, true, that with these considerations of private and party- 
interest there were others intermingled which had for their object the 
public good of the nation — at least, what we took to be such." 

Parliament was dissolved in September, 1710. The 
result of the elections was to give the Tories a strong 
majority in the Commons ; St. John was returned for 
Berkshire. WiUiam Bromley, the Tory member of 
Oxford University, was elected Speaker, and on the same 
day Atterbury was chosen Prolocutor of Convocation — 
elections which typified the close connection between the 
Government and the Church. In spite, however, of the 
overthrow of the Whigs, the Government was from the 
first in a far from secure position. A general panic had 



TEE PEACE OF UTBECHT, 47 

seized the nation that the "Whig Ministers were bent on 
overthrowing the Church. The conviction that all Whigs 
were Republicans, Atheists, or Nonconformists, was wide- 
spread. It was believed that the continuance of the Whigs 
in office meant the downfall of the Church in Eno'land. 
Religious feeling had been violently stirred up. For the 
time, the French war had been forgotten, and the great 
Whig Ministry had been prevented, in a moment of frenzy, 
from carrying on and concluding the war which it had 
hitherto successfully waged. It was obvious a reaction 
would ere long set in, a reaction dangerous to the new 
Ministers, if they had not in the interval proved themselves 
worthy of confidence. Even at the time of the Sacheverell 
trial the Tory leaders feared that if Marlborough resigned 
the nation might suddenly return to its senses. As soon 
as Godolphin's dismissal was known, the commercial 
classes had shown their distrust of the change of 
Government ; a panic had taken place in the City and 
the Bank shares fell from 140 to 110. Unless the 
Ministers could gain the confidence of the "moneyed" 
classes, it would be impossible to raise the enormous loans 
which were absolutely necessary. Then, again, the laro-e 
Tory majority was itself a difficulty to Harley and the 
moderate section of the Tories, who had desired a mixed 
administration, in which the Tory element should merely 
preponderate. They found Ihemselves in the hands of 
men like St. John and Harcourt, who, supported by 
the country members full of animosity towards Noncon- 
formists, and the*. " moneyed " class, were for no half- 
measures. But the Tory squires, half unconsciously, no 
doubt, were only endeavouring to carry out a line of 
policy, which, though ultimately unsuccessful, was, never- 
theless, a distinct policy. The Revolution had destroyed 
the predominance of the Church and of the landed interest 



43 EENB Y ST. JOHN, VISCO UNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

in the Government. The object of the Tories was to 
restore that predominan(;e. To defend the Church from 
the encroachments of Nonconformists, to vest the Govern- 
ment of the country in the hands of the landed gentry, 
to recognise as far as possible hereditary right in the 
succession — these were the principles which Queen 
Anne's Ministers, from 1710 to 1714, attempted to assert. 

" We looked," wrote St. John in after-years, •' on the political 
principles which had generally prevailed in our Governinent from the 
Bevolution of 1688 to be destructive to our true interest, to have 
mingled us too much in the affairs of the Continent, to tend to the 
impoverishing our people, and to the loosening the bands of our 
constitution in Church and State." 

One thing was obvious to both Harley and St. John, 
Peace was an absolute necessity. As long as the war 
continued, Marlborough was the most powerful subject, 
and the Ministry remained dependent on the " moneyed 
interest." The continuance of the war would obviously 
only result in the triumphant supremacy of Marlborough 
and the Whigs. Besides, it was the conviction of the 
Ministers that : — 

" the war, which had been begun for the security of the Allies, was 
continued for their grandeur; that tlie ends proposed when we 
engaged in it miglit have been answered long before ; and therefore 
that the first favourable occasion ought to be seized of making peace." 

In other words, considerations of foreign policy rendered 
the Ministers desirous to end a war with the aims of 
which they had no sympathy. Important questions of 
internal policy, too, demanded their full attention. 

The questions of peace and of the succession were 
closely connected. The Whigs firmly believed that the 
existence of a free Government in England, as well as the 
Hanoverian succession, depended on upholding the Grand 
Alliance and on reducing France to the position of a 



THE PEACE OF UTBECHT. 49 

second-rate power. If the Queen's death found the Whig 
party in power, strongly supported by the " moneyed " 
class and by a large army led by a successful and popular 
general, the Parliamentary succession would be safe. 
The Tories, on the other hand, disliked standing armies, 
and, like many people at the present day, wished to 
strengthen, and to rely almost entirely on, the fleet for 
defence ao;-ainst external foes. So far from thinking- with 
the Whigs that the succession of an Austrian prince to 
Spain was a matter of European importance, they re- 
garded Austria as a power which already had leant on 
England long enough, and had pursued her own separate 
advantage at the expense of the allies to an extent 
sufficient to deprive her of any further coi;sideration at 
the hands of England. Both Austria and Holland were 
indeed actively engaged in looking after their own terri- 
torial and commercial ends, while England, who was 
bearing by far the largest share of the expense, could 
gain but little to compensate her for the money and 
blood expended. The Tories, too, represented the 
dislike of the great mass of the people to foreign inter- 
ference. To withdraw England, then, from her Conti- 
nental connections, so as. to enable her to deal with her 
own domestic affairs without any foreign interference, 
was the main plank in St. John's foreign policy — a policy 
of non-intervention. It was of the greatest possible im- 
portance that peace should be made bef )re the death of 
the Queen. Each party thought the possession of power, 
when that event should take place, was most vital to ir- 
respective interests. The hands of Min.isters must be 
free, so as to enable them to make terms with the suc- 
cessor of the Queen, and thus to secure the continuance of 
their party in the enjoyment of the executive power. It 
is well to note that St. John, in his Letter to Sir William 

E 



50 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

Wyndliam, says that at this time ^* there was no formed 
design m the party against His Majesty's accessioQ to 
the throne. On the latter, and most other points, they 
affected a most glorious neutrality." 

Peace, then, was absolutely necessary, so as to enable 
the Ministers to employ their energies, then absorbed in 
the management of the war, in consolidating and strength- 
ening their position at home. But the difficulties in the 
way of peace were stupendous. The late election had 
been fought on the Church question, and a High Church 
Ministry and a strong Tory majority had been the result. 
Though St. John declared in later days that the war liad 
ceased to be wise or just after 1706, this was, by no means 
the general opinion. The Whig view of the necessity of 
co-operating loyally with our Allies, even at great expense 
to ourselves, was still the view generally held, though it 
was accompanied by a desire that a satisfactory peace 
should be made as soon as possible. 

The Tory policy was then clear. Satisfactory terms 
must be forced from Louis by an active prosecution of 
the war, and, at the same time, the war policy of the 
Whigs must be rendered unpopular. The attempts of 
Harley and St. John to impress their views on the public 
mind constitute an epoch in the history of English political 
literature. As early as August, 1710, the Examiner had 
been started, principally by St. John, to educate public 
opinion. No. 10, afterwards entitled a Letter to TJie 
Examiner, though written anonymously, was soon known 
to have come from the pen of St. John himself. 

In this, St. John's first famous political production, he 
blames the late Ministry for neglecting to obtain at the 
first opportunity an honourable peace, and ends his paper 
by a violent denunciation of the Duchess of Marlborough, 
and of her tyranny over the Queen. No. 10 attracted 



THE PEACE OF UTBECET. 61 

very considerable attention and provoked several replies, 
of which the most celebrated was written by Cowper, who 
attacked the views of Harley and St. John in the Tatler. 
We have here, as Sir Walter Scott observes, "the singular 
picture of two statesmen, each at the head of their 
respective parties,, condescending to become correspond- 
ents of the conductors of the periodical writings in 
politics." 

In November, Swift, now animated by deep hostility to 
the Whigs, was introduced to Harley, and began a series 
of celebrated articles in the Examintr, in which, followinsf 
on the lines of No. 10, he attacked the Whig^s and their 
policy, urged the repudiation of the National Debt, and 
still further undermined the popular regard for Marl- 
borough. There is no doubt whatever that, as long as 
Marlborough remained in command of the army and still 
retained a considerable amount of popularity at home, 
peace was practically impossible. To destroy his influence 
by repeated invectives in the Examiner against ambition 
and avarice, and then to deprive him of his command, 
became a necessary preliminary to the conclusion of any 
peace between a Tory Ministry and Louis XIV. Before, 
however, such a step could be taken, all Harley's political 
skill had to be called into play, in order to educate public 
opinion, and place the Ministry in a sufficiently strong 
position. During the winter the struggle was severe, and 
for a time the result seemed doubtful. 

Always anxious to conciliate opponents, and to rely on 
the moderate Tories, and if possible on the moderate 
Whigs, Harley had at first attempted to make an arrange- 
ment with Marlborouo^h. Throuo^h his aijent John 
Drummond, an Amsterdam merchant, St. John laid down 
the terms which the Ministers demanded from Marl- 
borough. He must give up his old friends and make 

E 2 



62 EENB Y ST. JOHN, VIS CO UNT BOLINGBBOKR 

" positive engagements to co-operate heartily in all the 
policy of the Tories." 

Late in December 1710, Marlborough arrived in 
England, and had two interviews with St. John, by v/hom 
he was soundly lectured for abandoning the Tory party. 
Marlborough, however, did not join the Tories, and, 
though he continued at the head of the army, it was 
obvious that his fall was only a matter of time, and 
Harley was forced to rely more and more on the Tory 
squires, then as ever strongly opposed to a policy 
of moderation. The disaster of Brihuega in December 
had given them a welcome opportunity for attacking the 
late Ministers. The Tories had always held, in opposition 
to Marlborough, that the operations in Spain ought not 
to be subordinate to those in Flanders. Brihuega, they 
asserted, proved the justice of this view. In both houses 
the late administration was attacked. In the House of 
Lords, the Whig stronghold, resolutions were passed 
blaming Whig ministers for the misfortunes in Spain, and 
complimenting Peterborough, who was now attached to 
the Tory leaders. In the Commons the financial ad- 
ministration of the Whigs was violently censured. A 
Bill repealing the JSTaturalisation Act was thrown out by 
the Lords after it had passed the Commons. A Bill 
praised by Swift in the Examiner as " that noble Bill 
of Qualification," and warmly supported by St. John, 
compelling all Members of Parliament to possess a 
certain income from landed property, passed both 
Houses of Parliament, and a committee organised 
by Harley and St. John was named to inquire into 
the expenditure of the Whig Government. But such 
measures did not satisfy the Tory squires. They wanted 
the dismissal of the Whigs from all posts in the country 
as well as in London. They expected the immediate 



TEE PEACE OF VTBEOHT. 63 

repression of Nonconformists and the establishment 
of the Crown on the basis of hereditary right, they 
looked for impeachments and executions. The October 
Club, which, founded in the autumn of 1710, met 
at the Bell Tavern in King Street, Westminster, held 
nightly meetings, at which the discontented Members of 
Parliament inveighed against Harley's moderation, to 
them so incomprehensible. St. John, with his invinc- 
ible eloquence, was far more to their taste than the 
temporising, unintelligible Harley. The former under- 
stood the nature of the men who then composed the House 
of Commons. "They grow," he wrote, 'Mike hounds, 
fond of the men who show them game, and by whose 
halloa they are used to be encouraged." His experience, 
too, as Secretary-at-War gaye him unusual opportunities 
for discovering blots in the financial administration of the 
war. His growing popularity in the House of Commons 
had not escaped the notice of Harley, who now began to 
fear that St. John might prove a successful rival. 

Apparently the Treasurer and Secretary were on the 
most intimate terms. With Harcourt they directed the 
policy of the Government, and from the end of January, 
1711, they dined together every Saturday afternoon, 
Swift being, from February the 17th, included in the party. 
Just when the discontent against Harley was assumino- 
dangerous proportions, the attack on him by Guiscard, 
a French spy, restored his popularity, and strengthened 
the position of the Ministry. During St. John's first 
tenure of office, he and Gruiscard had been boon com- 
panions. Godolphin had aided him to form a reo-iment 
of refugees which was to land in France and create a 
diversion in the interest of the Allies. Not beino- 
properly supported by the Whigs, the regiment was 
disbanded, and soon after a pension which had been 



54 HENB T ST. JOHN, VISCO UNT BOLINGJBBOKE. 

granted him was discontinued. On becoming Secretary 
of State, St. John had procured for him a pension, which 
Harley afterwards reduced. Furious at this treatment, 
the unfortunate adventurer then offered to act as a spy in 
England in the service of the French Government. His 
letters being seized, he was brought before the Council 
and interrogated by St. John. On being refused a private 
interview by the Secretary, Guiscard stabbed Harley, who 
was near him, in the breast with a pen-knife. St. John 
at once ran him through with his sword, and the un- 
fortunate Guiscard died shortly afterwards in Newgate. 
Harley, who by the testimony of St. John, had behaved 
throughout with great firnmess, at once became a martyr 
for religion, his country, and his Queen. He was entirely 
reinstated in the opinions of the Tory squires. His 
popularity was immense. The death of Rochester left 
him without a rival. On the 24th of May he was created 
Earl of Oxford, and a week later Lord Treasurer. " He 
had grown," as Swift said, " by persecution, turning out 
and stabbing." At this very time the Committee em- 
ployed in examining the financial administration for the 
late Government presented its report, which showed that 
upwards of thirty-five millions sterling were unaccounted 
for. 

In June Parliament was prorogued. Thus far Harley 
had guided the Government with considerable skill. 
Himself a moderate Tory, he had contrived to strengthen 
the position of his party without yielding to the extreme 
section of his followers. He had seen the necessity of 
securing able writers on the side of the Government, and 
he had employed Swift, Defoe, Prior, and Parnell. The 
"moneyed " class had begun to show confidence in the 
Ministry, and on the whole all was going well, though 
the " isthmus " on which the Ministry stood was narrow. 



THE PEACE OF UTBECET. 65 

From this time, however, the rivahy hetween St. John and 
Haiiey became a source of weakness to the Administra- 
tion. The friendly Saturday dinners ceased soon after 
Harley's elevation, and the formation in June of the 
Society of Brothers, intended by St. John to be a rival, 
partly literary, partly political to the Kitcat Club, failed 
to heal the growing breach between the two Statesmen. 
But for the time the struggle for pre-eminence in 
the Cabinet was deferred. It was evident that the 
position of the Government would be imperilled unless 
peace, and a peace advantageous to England, was not 
shortly made. 

Tlie advisability of peace had been debated by the 
Ministers on their accession to power. "We must have 
peace," Swift wrote in March in his Journal, "let it 
be a good or a bad one, though nobody dares talk 
of it." But the difficulties in the way of peace were 
enormous. As a member of the Grand Alliance, 
England was bound (I) not to treat with France, except 
^'jointly and in concert " with the rest of the allies, 
(2) to co-operate with her allies for the attainment of 
certain common objects. St. John, representing the 
Government, laid down, early in 1711 and at various 
times throughout the year, the " new footing " on which 
England was prepared to act, and "the new principles " 
which were to guide the foreign policy of Eno-land. 
Since 1706 there had ceased to be a common cause 
binding the allies together ; the object of the Grand 
Alliance had been accomplished ; the enormous power 
of France had been reduced ; France had abandoned in 
1706 her claim to the entire Spanish monarchy. After 
that date the war had changed its ch iracter. It was no 
longer just or necessary. It had become a war of 
ambition, of selfish interests, of plunder, of individual 



56 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

aggrandisement. Hence it was resolved that each Ally 
was to "advance and manage his own pretensions," that 
England was to separate her interests from those of the 
Allies, though not to formally withdraw from the Alliance. 
Having secured her own interests, she would then at a 
Conference join the Allies, who would be compelled to 
agxee to the proposals which England and France had 
previously drawn up. 

It was obvious to Harley and St. John that this course 
was most perilous. The general opinion in the country 
was that the war was a just one, and that, after Marl- 
borough's brilhant victories, England ought certainly to 
secure enormous advantages. It was uncertain, too, how 
their Tory supporters would view a secret arrangement 
with France, which, though advantageous to England, 
would necessarily mean serious modifications in the con- 
cessions of France to the Allies. To postpone peace 
would be indeed fatal to the Tory scheme of policy ; to 
avow the means by which alone peace could be made 
would invojve the whole party in immediate ruin. It was, 
therefore, determined to open secret negotiations without 
delay with France, and at the same time, till the nego- 
tiations had advanced a considerable step, to disclaim, if 
necessary, all intention of separating England's interests 
from those of the Allies. Dartmouth being Secretary of the 
Southern Department, the management of the negotiations 
should properly have been in his hands ; but St. 
John's abilities, combined with his knowledge of French, 
rendered it absolutely necessary that, with the charge 
of the Northern Department, he should be practically 
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. His correspond- 
ence during these years teems in consequence with 
illustrations of the double-dealing, the dissimulation, 
the trickery necessary to carry through a policy which 



TEE PEACE OF UTBECET, 67 

Involved so much intrigue. In the Queen's Speech at 
the opening of Parliament at the end of November, 
1710, the vigorous prosecution of the war, especially 
in Spain, was recommended, and for a time the Tories 
were compelled to appear as zealous for war as their 
opponents. None the less were the Ministers determined 
to carry out their peace policy without delay. In 
January, 1711, Gaultier, a French priest, well known 
to Lord Jersey, St. John's relative, was sent to inform 
Torcy, the chief Minister in France, verbally, that the 
English Government desired peace. In Gaultier the 
Ministers reposed the greatest confidence. " From first 
to last," wrote Bolingbroke in later days, " Gaultier has 
been in the whole secret of every transaction relating to 
the peace." While Marlborough was carrying on a 
campaign in the Netherlands', Gaultier was sent a second 
time to ask the French Minister for some definite pro- 
posals. Louis was now in a stronger position. The 
Allies, after the disasters of Brihuega and Villa Viciosa, 
only held Catalonia. Louis' tone, therefore, was very 
different from what it had been at the Conferences at the 
Hague or at Gertruydenburg. Still, at the end of April, 
Gaultier returned with technically " the first overture " 
from the French Government. On April the 27th St. 
John sent a copy of the French overture to Lord Kaby, 
our Ambassador at the Hague, telling him to communicate 
it to the Grand Pensionary Heinsius, and to beg him to 
keep the matter secret. 

The death of the Emperor Joseph in April, 1711, 
strengthened the hands of the Tories. It was clear to 
them that to revive the Empire of Charles V. in the 
person of the Archduke Charles would be more disadvan- 
tageous to the balance of power than to allow Philip to 
remain in possession of Spain. 



58 BENBYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOEE. 

From May to the middle of July the negotiations 
between England and France were suspended, owing to 
the endeavours — foreseen by St. John — of the Dutch to 
secure separate term? from the French. In May St. John 
made his well-known attempt to gain popularity for the 
ministry by an expedition, the object of which was the 
expulsion of the French from Canada and the capture 
of Newfoundland. In this deliberate attack upon the 
French power in the New World, St. John anticipated 
the policy of Chatham, Had the expedition been 
successful, the effect would have been very great upon 
the negotiations which were reopened in July. It was 
then thought advisable to associate with Gaul tier some 
trustworthy agent who should act as the English plenipo- 
tentiary. For this post, Prior, who had been Secretary 
to the British Legation in Paris at the close of 
William III.'s reign and since the beginning of the 
war a Commissioner of Trade, was chosen. With the 
exception of the short periods when BoHngbroke and 
Shrewsbury were in Paris, Prior was in full charge of the 
negotiations, though, as a matter of fact, his powers were 
extremely limited. His principal duty was to receive 
the answers of Louis XIV. to the demands of the English 
Ministers. In the middle of July, Prior and Gaultier, 
under fictitious names, made their way to Paris, the 
former bearing a long list of England's preliminary 
demands, and in the early days of August shortly after 
St. John had written a letter congratulating Marlborough 
upon his strategic success near Bouchain, they returned 
with Mesnager, a Pouen merchant, to whom the French 
King had intrusted the duty of discussing the proposed 
terms of peace and of drawing up preliminary articles. 

On the 7th of September, eight preliminary articles 
were signed by St. John and Dartmouth on behalf of 



THE FEACE OF UTBECET. 59 

England, by Mesnager on behalf of France and Spain. 
Daring the progress of the negotiations it was obvious to 
Mesnager that the lives of the Ministers depended upon 
securing advantageous terms. When all the other 
Ministers showed signs of trepidation, Shrewsbury being 
especially agitated and anxious, St. John alone was firm 
and resolute. 

His determination to carry through the peace is 
further evidenced by a letter to Drunnnond on September 
the 4th, in which he says that the Queen's Ministers: — 

" ■will deiaend on the course aud tenor of their proceedings, to set their 
merit in a just and proper light, without being frightened, vexed, or 
diverted from their measures by any susiiicions which may be enter- 
tained of them, or by any clamour which may be raised against them." 

As soon as Mesnager, whose residence in England had 
been a profound secret, was safe in France, a set of 
preliminary articles different from those drawn up 
between England and France, and which included a 
Barrier for the Dutch, were formally comnmnicated to 
the Allied powers. 

In the middle of October, Gallas, the Imperial 
Ambassador, whose fury at the evident determination of 
the English Ministers to end the war knew no bounds, 
and who, "with the natuml impertinence of a German, 
improved by conversation with a saucy English faction," 
styled England's policy as an '•' enigma," and sent a copy 
of these articles to the Daily Courant. The country, whicli 
was unaware that England's interests had been carefully 
considered in a separate and secret agreement, w^as 
in a ferment ; the friendship between St. John and 
Marlborough came to an end, an;l the letter returned 
to England in November, the declared enemy of the 
Tories. Buys, the self-opinionated Pensionary of Am- 
sterdam, had been already sent from Holland to remon- 



60 HENB Y ST. JOHN, VISGO UNT BOLINGBBOKR 

strate, and his house became the head-quarters of the 
Opposition. There the Whigs met the foreign Envoys. 
There was composed a memorial presented by Bothmar, 
the Hanoverian envoy, in which a gloomy picture was 
drawn of the danger to England's independence from the 
policy of the Government. On the 17th of November 
serious disturbances were expected, and the trained bands 
of London and Westminster were called out. Somerset 
soon after avowed himself hostile to the Ministerial policy, 
and this was the more serious, since his wife at that time 
stood high in Anne's affections. 

The general opinion still was that, though peace would 
be desirable, the French King should be forced to give 
up Spain. The real meaning of the death of Joseph in 
April and its effect on the course of the war seems to 
have been unperceived by all save the Tory statesmen. 
Numerous pamphlets appeared, attacking the Ministers. 
Even Nottingham, the high Tory (Churchman, made 
through the medium of Somerset a compact with the 
Whigs, disgraceful to all parties, according to which the 
Whigs were to allow the Occasional Conformity Bill to pass, 
on consideration of his aid in censuring the preliminary 
articles. Immediate action was necessary. The enemies 
of the Government must be attacked and defeated ; the 
negotiations must be proceeded with without delay; 
a public opinion in favour of peace must be formed. 

"When I Tin dertook," wrote Bolingbroke later, with reference to 
this crisis, "in opposition to all the confederates, in ojjpositioa to a 
powerful turbulent faction at home, in opposition even to those habits 
of thinking which mankind had contracted by the same wrong 
principle of Government pursued for twenty years, to make a peace, 
tlie utmost vigour and resolution became necestary." 

And he led the attack on the Whigs by severe measures 
against the pamphleteers. 



TEE PEACE OF UTBECHT. 61 

Writing to the Queen on October 17, be says : " I 
have discovered the author of another scandalous libel, 
who will be in custody this afternoon ; he will make the 
thirteenth I have seized, and the fifteenth I have found 
out." 

In all, fourteen booksellers and printers w^ere arrested 
and w^arned ; Gallas was ordered to leave the country. 
The Earl of Strafford (formerly Lord Eaby) was at once 
sent to Holland with St. John's instructions to combine 
persuasion and firmness in the difficult task of recon- 
ciling the Dutch to the published articles. The meeting 
of Parliament was deferred till Swift's Conduct of the 
Allies had appeared. During the summer Oxford and 
St. John were accustomed to spend alternate Sundays at 
Windsor. There, in a small house lent to St. John, 
Swift and the Secretary of State often met, and there 
The Conduct of the Allifs was in great measure written 
under St. John's direction. It is consequently to be re- 
garded rather as a State paper than as a mere party 
pamphlet, especially as Oxford revised it, and made many 
suggestions. The object of this celebrated work was to 
educate the people, and to coiivert them from the Whio- 
view, that no peace would be safe or honourable without 
the restitution by the Eourbons of the whole of the 
Spanish dominions. It exposed Marlborough's rapacity 
and dealt what amounted to a death-blow to his already 
declining popularity. It showed that England should have 
acted in the war as an auxiliary, not as a principal ; that 
the Allies had failed to carry out their engagements ; and 
that nearly the whole burden of maintainino' the struo-o-le 
had devolved upon England, w^ho, moreover, was pre- 
vented by the Allies from recompensing herself by con- 
quests in the West Indies. This pamphlet appeared on 
November the 27th, just before Parliament met, and its 



62 BENRY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBUOKE. 

effect was extraordinary. Eleven thousand copies were 
sold before the end of January, and there is no doubt that 
it influenced the opinions of the great body of Englishmen 
strongly in favour of peace. 

At last, on December the 7th, Parliament met, and 
Nottingham moved, as an amendment to the Address that 
" No peace could be safe or honourable if Spain and the 
West Indies were allotted to any branch of the House of 
Bourbon." 

He was supported by Marlborough, who in a dignified 
speech expressed the Whig hatred of the House of 
Bourbon. By the Whigs, nay, by most Englishmen, 
Louis XIV. was regarded as a tyrant, whose ambition 
threatened all Europe, especially all Protestant Europe. 
To their excited imaginations, the danger of allowing 
Spain and Erance to be governed by Bourbon princes 
hardly required demonstration. Nottingham's amend- 
ment was carried by sixty-one against fifty-five. 

The month of December was an anxious time for the 
Ministers. The Queen had allowed Somerset to escort 
her to her carriage after the debate, and Somerset had 
voted against the Government. The Duchess of Somer- 
set was supposed to have supplanted Mrs. Masham in 
the favour of the Queen. In the House of Lords, the 
Whigs, after allowing — in accordance with their compact 
with Nottingham — the Occasional Conformity Bill to 
pass, had secured another victory over the Tories by 
refusing; to allow the Duke of Hamilton to sit as an 
English Peer (as Duke of Brandon). Things looked black 
for the Government ; Swift was in despair, and asked St. 
John for some foreign mission, so that he might be out of 
danger in the hour of the Whig triumph. St. John, who 
was especially attacked by Nottingham's motion, laughed 
at Swift's fears, and assured him. that there was no 



TEE PEACE OF VTBECRT. 63 

danger. But it was time for the Ministers to act, and 
when so much depended on peace being made without 
delay, and when failure meant ruin, a man of St. 
John's firm yet impetuous temperament couUi not hesitate. 
Oxford himself was roused, and a series of blows were 
aimed at the Wliigs which bore down all opposition. 
In the London Gazette of January the 1st, 1712, it was 
announced that twelve new peers had been created, and 
that Marlborough had been dismissed from all his employ- 
ments. St. John is reputed to have said : " If these 
twelve had not been enough, w^e would have give them 
another dozen ; " but afterwards, when exile had given 
tifne for reflection, he spoke of the creation of the twelve 
peers "as an unprecedented invidious measure, to be 
excused by nothing but the necessity, and hardly by 
that." 

During this important session St. John was the 
acknowledged leader of the Tories in the House of 
Commons, where he had an immense majority. In 
February, 1712, Swift wrote to Stella that " The Secretary 
is much the greatest Commoner in England, and turns the 
whole Parliament, who can do nothing without him, and, 
if he lives and has health, will, I believe, be one day at 
the head of affairs." During the ensuing session St. John 
continued the *' strong remedies." Resolutions were 
passed, declaring Marlborough guilty of illegal practices 
in the Netherlands and liable for half a million of money. 
*' The Duke of Marlborough's friends," wi-ote St. John 
to Strafford, " may be as industrious as they please on 
your side of the water, and on ours too, but he has sunk 
himself beyond redemption." Walpole had already been 
pronounced guilty of corruption, and was sent to the 
Tower. All criticisms of the Government policy were 
checked with a heavy hand. A Whig member who 



64 HENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

ventured to call in question the action of the Ministers 
was threatened by St. John with imprisonment, and in 
April a Stamp Duty was imposed for the purpose of 
repressing libels. To impress still more on the public 
mind the wisdom of the Tory peace policy, a Parlia- 
mentary Representation was drawn up, which embodied 
several resolutions, blaming the Emperor and the Dutch 
for not liavinor fulfilled their oblig-ations, and censurino* 
the Barrier Treaty, which, signed by Townshend in 1709, 
would, if executed, have placed the entire Netherlands with 
all its wealth in the hands of the Dutch. The Conduct 
of the Allies, published in the previous November, and 
followed up in December by Swift's Jlemarhs on the 
Barrier Treaty, had had a profound effect. The 
subordination of English interests to those of the Allies 
under the Whig administration, and the rapacity and 
selfishness of the Allies themselves were now well known. 
Marlborough had been an obstacle in the way of peace. 
His dismissal had not only removed the chief danger to 
the Ministry but had caused a rise in the Stocks, and the 
moneyed interest now looked keenly for a Treaty con- 
taining terms favourable to England. 

This bold and audacious line of policy, so thoroughly 
characteristic of St. John, was successful. Ministers were 
enabled to devote all their attention to the negotiations 
for peace, which, in spite of Eugene's visit to England early 
in the year, had been opened at Utrecht on January the 
29th, 1712. During the next fifteen months St. John had 
the diflflcult task of negotiating a Treaty which should 
satisfy the nation. To the protracted character of these 
negotiations was in great measure due the ultimate failure 
of St. John's attempt to place the Tory party on a stable 
basis. Erom the year 1711 down to the conclusion of 
peace, there were always two sets of negotiations pro- 



TEE PEACE OF UTBECHT. 65 

ceeding ; an open negotiation carried on in conjunction 
with the European powers, and a secret correspondence 
between the English and French Ministers, the object 
of which was to arrange terms of peace satisfactory to 
England and France, and then to force them upon the rest 
of the Allies. The French JMinister was kept regularly 
informed of the policy of the English Government, of 
their instructions to Strafford, of the communications of 
the Allied ambassadors, and of the plans of the Whigs. 

The (Conference at Utrecht opened with considerable 
bitterness. The Austrians and Dutch were furious on 
realisino^ that Eno-land no lono^er intended to continue a 
war for their benefit. Encouraged by the divisions 
among the Allies and by the policy of England, the 
French at once took a high tone, for which the English 
public was entirely unprepared. The attitude of Louis 
and the proposals he made roused a deep feeling of 
indignation in England. It was evident that peace 
on the French terms would never be accepted. The 
English Ministers accordingly sent Harley's cousin to 
Utrecht with fresh instructions. It is impossible not 
to admire the determined attitude taken up by St. John. 
He was more than ever resolved to force on without delay 
a peace which should satisfy the English expectations. 
" The French will see," he wrote to Strafford, " that there 
is a possibility of reviving the love of war in our people, 
by the indignation which has been expressed at the plan 
given in at Utrecht." 

The death of the Duke of Burgundy in February, in 
his thirtieth year, presented a fresh difficulty. A sickly 
infant — afterwards Louis XV. — alone stood between the 
succession of Philip of Spain to France. The alarm of 
Europe at the probable early union of the French and 
Spauish crowns was general. St. John, however, was 

F 



06 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

rea ]y with a plan. Philip was offered the alternative 
of abdicating in favour of the Duke of Savoy, and con- 
tinuing to enjoy his rights as heir presumptive of France, 
or of being recognised as King of Spain, after renouncing 
for himself and his heirs the crown of France. 

Till Philip's answer was received, the negotiations at 
Utrecht were naturally at a stand-still. The Allies had 
never ceased warlike preparations, hoping to secure by 
some military success their ascendancy at the Conference, 
and so to force better terms from Louis. It was obvious 
that English Ministers, bound as they were by secret 
enffag-ements to France, could not allow the En"iish 
troops to take any part in actual hostilities. In May St. 
John sent a desiiatch to Ormond, who commanded the 
forces, ordering him " to avoid engaging in any siege or 
hazarding a battle." The rage of the Allies and of the 
Whigs in England was intense. In St. John's opinion, 
expressed in after-years, this step was justifiable in every 
respect. It might indeed be argued that the Allies had 
no right to complain. Had not the Emperor, without 
consulting the Allies, made the Pacification of Milan, thus 
setting free French veterans who turned the scale against 
us in Spain at Almanza ? Had he not, without consulting 
the rest of the Allies, sent 12,000 troops to conquer Naples 
for himself, when he ought to have aided the attack on 
Toulon? Then the Dutch had no right to complain. 
Again and again they had hampered Marlborough and 
defeated his designs. In 1703, and again in 1705, the 
action of the Dutch had tied his hands. Had not, too, both 
the Emperor and the Dutch failed most singularly to con- 
tribute their share of the stipulated expenses ? Nothing 
could check the powerful will of St. John, supported by 
the general feeling of weariness of the war. In June the 
Whigs made their last attempt to put obstacles in the 



TEE PEACE OF UTBECHT. 67 

way of peace. In the same month a suspension of arms 
for two months was openly declared between England 
and France, and the British forces were withdrawn from 
acting in concert with the Allies. The Rubicon had 
been passed. On the 4th of July St. John was raised to 
the Peerage with the title of Baron St. John of Lydiard 
Tregoze, and Viscount Bolingbroke. He had expected 
an earldom, and he attributed his disappointment to the 
jealousy of Oxford. Certain it is that from henceforth 
the hatred felt by Bolingbroke for his leader was unmis- 
takable, and the feud between them became impossible 
to be healed. 

A temporary rupture of the negotiations caused by the 
rage of the Allies at the action of England and by a 
quarrel between the Dutch and French Envoys did not 
disconcert Bolingbroke. His impatience at each fresh 
check to the conclusion of peace determined him if 
necessary to make a separate treaty with France. As 
negotiations by writing consumed too much valuable time, 
he decided to visit the Minister Torcy in Paris, and early 
in August, accompanied by Prior, he carried out his 
resolution. 

On the Saturday after his arrival, Bolingbroke had an 
interview with Louis XIV. at Fontainebleau. That ao-ed 
monarch, who spoke rapidly and indistinctly, expressed 
his desire for peace, and his respect for the Queen of 
England. The general wish for peace and the reception 
given him by the King secured to Bolingbroke the most 
enthusiastic reception in Paris. On entering the theatre 
as the Cid was being performed, the whole house rose to 
receive him, and several times during the evening mani- 
fested their respect for the illustrious statesman. 

Ten days' personal interview with Torcy smoothed 
many difficulties, and on his return to London a sus- 

F 2 



68 HENBT ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBROKE. 

pension of arms for four months was proclaimed, and was 
received with signs of universal joy. 

It was during his stay in Paris that Azzurini Conti, the 
Jacobite spy, asserted that Bolingbroke had two private 
interviews with the Pretender. The truth of this asser- 
tion has been questioned, and, in the absence of more 
reliable evidence, it seems unlikely that such interviews 
took place. Azzurini's character is not such as to inspire 
confidence in his statements. On his arrival in England 
in April, 1711, he wormed himself into the confidence of 
the Jacobites, and betrayed their secrets to Heinsius, 
Bothmar, and Zinzendorf, the Imperial Ambassador at 
the Hague. Strafford discovered his practices, and in- 
formed Bolingbroke, with the satisfactory result that 
Azzurini's son, who was also implicated, was enticed to 
Paris, and imprisoned in the Bastille, where he remained 
till 1726. The elder Azzurini, who had returned to Italy, 
was arrested later and imp isoned. Their tendency to 
mendacity makes it impossible to accept as true such 
isolated statements as the above. There seems, however, 
no doubt that Bolingbroke and the Chevalier were at the 
Opera on the same night. Bolingbroke himself owned 
to Swift that he saw the Pretender once at Paris. " He 
protested to me," wrote Swift to iVrchbishop King in 
1716, '^that he never saw him but once, and that was at 
a great distance in public, at the Opera." This incident 
naturally was seized upon by " les bien intentionnes " (as 
the Jacobites called themselves) as a hopeful sign, and 
many were the speculations to which it gave rise. 

He was also accused of having been betrayed into some 
official indiscretions, which, if true, were more serious. In 
order to discover the extent of Bolingbroke's powers, 
Torcy had determined to employ a certain well-known 
Madame de Tencin, and her married sister, Madame de 



TEE PEACE OF UTRECHT. 69 

Ferrlole. Madame de Tencin, after renouncing her vows 
as a nun, had settled in Paris with her brother, the Abbe 
de Tencin, a most worthless character, afterwards secretary 
to the Duke of Orleans. Bolingbroke contracted a close 
intimacy with these people, and in 1808 three volumes of 
letters were published in France, mainly consisting of 
letters between Bolingbroke and Madame de Ferriole, 
between 1712 and 1736, and between Bolingbroke and 
the Abbe Alari between 1718 and 17o6. By means of 
these sisters, Torcy, it was said, gained the desired inform- 
ation, and, as if to heap coals of fire on the iieads of the 
Tencins, Bolingbroke, so far unconscious of the treachery 
to which he had been subject, shortly afterwards used his 
influence with Victor Amadeus to secure to the Abbe de 
Tencin an abbey in Savoy, which had been presented to 
him by Louis XIV. during the period in which that 
province was in French hands. It was in consequence 
of these widely exaggerated, if not absolutely unfounded, 
rumours about this conduct in Paris that Oxford rashly 
allowed his personal feelings to get the better of his 
discretion, and tried for a short time to carry on the 
foreign negotiations without Bolingbroke's assistance. It 
was soon seen that he was indispensable, and, after a 
short interval, he resumed his former duties. 

His difficulties at this trying' time were tremendous. 
So serious became the dissensions between himself and 
Oxford, especially after the latter had passed him over 
in the disposal of Godolphin's Order of the Garter, that 
he retired to Bucklersbury for a fortnight, and all the 
efforts of Swift only succeeded in patching up the quarrel. 
Further delays also occurred in the course of the neo-otia- 
tions. Oxford and the other members of the Cabinet were 
by no means in entire agreement with regard to the 
terms of Bolingbroke's understanding with Torcy. In 



70 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCO UNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

November, too, tlie Duke of Hamilton, who was on the 
point of starting to Paris as the English Envoy, was 
killed in a duel, and great difficulty was experienced 
in finding a suitable successor. At length the Duke of 
Shrewsbury was appointed. It was, however, not till 
January, 1713, that he started, the special object of his 
mission being to try and make satisfactory arrangements 
with resrard to the cession of Newfoundland and Nova 
Scotia, and to conclude a commercial treaty on which 
Bolingbroke had set his heart. The private negotiations 
between England and France, and the public negotiations 
at Utrecht, which had been resumed in October, dragged 
on slowly through the winter of 1712-13. It was im- 
possible for the Ministers to meet Parliament till they 
could lay before both Houses the Treaties of Peace. 
Bolingbroke's letters to Prior mark the sense of danger 
felt by the Ministers should the negotiations end in failure. 

" To you," he wrote, "I can only add that we stand on the brink of 
a precipice, but the French stand there too. Pray tell M. de Torcy 
from me, that he may get Kobin and Harry (Oxford and Boling- 
broke), hanged but affairs will soon run backward into so much 
confusion that he will wish us alive again." 

In February 1713, Bolingbroke sent an ultimatum to 
Shrewsbury for the French Court, and on March the 19th 
he wrote to Strafford that : — 

" the long suspense of the Treaty gives hopes to their faction, and 
consequently increases their clamour and whets their rage ; whilst 
those who wish well to their country, and who are a vast majority in 
every part of the kingdom, grow tired with expectation, and uneasy 
under the delay." 

The result of the firm attitude and determined perse- 
verance of Bolingbroke, aided by the efibrts of Prior and 
Shrewsbury in France, and of Drummond and Strafford 



TEE PEACE OF UTBECHT. 71 

in Holland, was that on the 31st of March the Treaties 
of Utrecht were signed. 

On the 9th of April Parliament met, and the Queen in 
her Speech informed the Houses that the Treaties were 
now sio^ned, and that measures had heen taken for securino- 
the Protestant Succession. The successful conclusion of 
the war only roused the Whigs to fresh exertions, and 
no better illustration can be found of the height to which 
party feeling ran, than the scene at Covent Garden, where 
Addison's Cato was brought out. 

The Whigs attempted to see in Cato a representation of 
Marlborough lamenting the expiring liberties of his 
country, but Bolingbroke cleverly turned the tables on his 
opponents by presenting the leading actor, Booth, with 
fifty guineas for defending the cause of liberty so well 
against a perpetual dictator. * 

On the 5th of May 1713, peace was proclaimed in 
London, and was received with universal rejoicing. 

The Peace of Utrecht is Boiingbroke's best known 
achievement. His reputation as a statesman is closely 
bound up with it; and no judgment of his character 
and abilities would be complete without a careful consider- 
ation of the necessity of the Peace, and of the means by 
which it was brought about. Its conclusion marks the 
overthrow of that Whig foreign policy which aimed at 
establishing great Continental alliances, to uphold and 
support the Parliamentary Settlement. According to 
the Whig view, France, the ally of the Pretender, was 
England's enemy, and therefore should be deprived of 
all means of endangering England's liberty and independ- 
ence. By the Peace of Utrecht the foreign guarantees 
of the Parliamentary Settlement were now in great part 
destroyed, and the Tory policy of freeing England from 
her Continental connections was triumphant. There is 



72 EENB Y ST. JOHN, VIS CO UNT BOL INGBBOKE. 

no doubt that peace was necessary and expedient. The 
death of the Emperor Joseph in 1711 made it impossible 
for Eno^lish statesmen to labour for the revival of the 
Empire of Charles V. England too had nothing to gain 
by the continuance of the war. She had borne by far the 
largest part of the expense, and the war had cost her fifty- 
three millions. Bolingbroke, in a letter to Lord Eaby 
on May the 6th, 1711, sums up admirably some of the 
reasons for making peace without delay : — 

" We are now in tlie tenth campaign of a war, the great load of 
which has fallen on Britain, as the great advantage of it is proposed to 
redound to the House of Austria and to the States-General. They 
are in interest more imm( diately, we more remotely, concerned. How- 
ever, what by our forwardness to eng.ige iu every article of expense, 
what by our private assurances, and what by our public Parliamentary 
declarations, that no peace should be made without the entire resti- 
tution of the Spanish monarchy, we are become principals in the 
contest ; the war is looked upon as our war, and it is treated 
accordingly by the confederates, even by the Imperialists and by the 
Dutch. . . . 

"... On the other hand, our allies have always looked first at 
home, and the common cause has been served by the best of them in 
the second place. From hence it is that our commerce hi\B been 
neglected, while the French have engrossed the South Sea trade to 
themselves, and the Dutch encroach daily upon us, both in the East 
Indies and upon the coast of Africa. From hence it is that we have 
every year added to our burden, which was long ago greater than we 
could l»ear, whilst the Dutch have yearly lessened their proportions in 
every part of the war, even in that of Flanders, on the pretence of 
poverty. 

" Whilst the Emperor has never employed twenty of his ninety 
thousand men against France, on ace »unt of the troubles in Hungary, 
which he would not accommodate, nor has suffered our vast expenses 
in Italy to be effectual on account of articles in which it did not suit 
with his conveniency to keep his word, and whilst each of the other 
confederates in his turn has, from some false pretence, or from some 
trifling consideration of private advantaQ;e, neglected to perform his 
part in the wars, or given a reason to the others for not performing 
theirs ; from hence it is that our fleet is diminished and rotten, that 
our funds are mortgaged for thirty-two and niu.ty-nine years, that 



THE PEACE OF UTBECHT. 73 

our specie is exhausted, and that we have nothing in possession, and 
hardly anything in expectation, as a compensation to Britain for 
liaviug borne the burden and heat of the day; whilst Holland has 
obtained a secure and even formidable barrier; , . . whilst the House 
of Austria has everything in hand, a la Sicile pres, which they 
proposed by the war. . . . From hence, in one word, it is that our 
Government is in consumption, and that our vitals are consuming, and 
we must inevitably sink at once ; add lo this, tliat if we were able to 
bear the same proportion of charge some years longer, yet, from the 
fatal consequences, should certainly miss the great general end of the 
war, the entire recovery of the Spanish monarchy from the House of 
Bourbon." 

The means by which the Minister brought about the 
Peace have been almost universally condemned. His 
political correspondence has been generally regarded as " a 
mass of duplicity and falsehood." Mr. Lecky, while 
allowing that some separate explanations with the French 
was justifiable, condemns '* the tortuous proceedings that 
terminated in the Peace of Utrecht " as '* one of the most 
shameful pages in English history." Yet, allowing that 
many of the actions of the Ministers in conducting the ne- 
gotiations appear indefensible, and that secret negotiations 
and arrangements behind the backs of allies are never 
pleasant to contemplate, there is something to be said for 
the course adopted. It must be remembered that peace 
without delay was absolutely necessary for the carrying 
out of the Tory policy. In 1706, in 1709, and in 1710, 
peace negotiations had been wrecked mainly throuoli the 
obstinacy of the Dutch and Imperialists. Unless English 
Ministers entered into some understanding with the 
French, it was certain that the peace negotiations would 
again end in failure. The conduct of the Dutch and 
Imperialists throughout the war had been so selfish, they 
had so often acted disloyally to England, they had so 
frequently broken the engagements of the Grand Alliance 
to suit their own convenience, that, allowing that a policy 



74 HENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLmGBBOKE. 

of retaliation was unworthy of Great Britain, it is quite im- 
possible to sympathise with their rage and disappointment 
on finding that England was determined to make peace. 
Again, in the latter part of 1710 and early part 
of 1711, the Tory Ministry was in a precarious 
position. " They stood," said Swift, *' like an isthmus 
between the extreme Tories and the violent Whiors." 
Public opinion was in favour of the expulsion of the 
Bourbons from Spain, and till public opinion had been 
educated it would have been dangerous to reveal the 
character of the negotiations. This uncertainty as to the 
reception of the terms of peace by the nation undoubtedly 
was one of the principal reasons of the secret corre- 
spondence with France. It must, too, be remembered that 
the statesmen of Anne's reign should not be judged by the 
standard of the nineteenth century politics. The pre- 
mature discovery of the negotiations in 1711 would have 
probably led to the ruin, if not to the impeachment, of the 
Ministers. Again, Ministers were far more dependent upon 
the royal favour than they are at the present day. The 
personal influence of the Queen on the body of the nation 
was immense. The accession of Anne had been followed 
by Whig defeats at the polling-booths, and by large Tory 
majorities. Had Anne taken umbrage at the character of 
the peace proposals and dissolved Parliament, there is no 
doubt that the reverence felt for her would have resulted 
in the return of a large Whig majority bent on vengeance. 
Until they felt assured of concessions that would satisfy 
all classes in England, especially the commercial class, the 
Ministers naturally did not think it advisable to declare 
openly their intention of taking no further part in 
hostilities against the French. This, it seems, is the true 
explanation of the means adopted by Oxford and Boling- 
broke to bring about peace. 



THE PEACE OF UTBECET. 75 

The terms, too, have been criticised by writers who 
obviously have never realised that the conclusion of peace 
was a matter of life and death to the Ministers, and that 
the opposition offered by the Dutch and Imperialists to any 
but the most extravagant conditions rendered Boling- 
broke's task unusually difficult. No one would now 
assert that the Dutch secured a barrier which at all 
compensated them for their long and successful strucro-le 
against France. It is impossible not to regret what has 
been called the desertion of the Catalans, and writers 
have one and all written as though Bolingbroke had 
deliberately given up the Catalans to the vengeance of 
Philip. Bolingbroke was fully aware of the claim of our 
faithful Catalan Allies on Enn;-lish consideration. Ao-ain 
and again he had during the negotiations exerted himself 
on their behalf. After his visit to Paris in Auofust 1711, 
Torcy wrote that, in accordance with St. John's representa- 
tions, " Le roi dipeche un courrier a Madrid et conseille 
au roi d'Espagne d'accorder un pardon aux Catalans, et je 
ne doute pas qu'il ne suive un aussi bon avis." As late as 
February the 3rd, 1713, he wrote to Strafford to insist on 
the restoration of the Catalans to their ancient privileges. 
Unfortunately for his reputation, Bolingbroke did not 
make the restoration of the Catalans to their ancient 
privileges and their protection from Philip's hostility one 
of the express conditions of the Peace, but his lanouacre to 
Strafford leaves no doubt that he thought there would be 
no difficulty in securing to them their rights. But during 
the months immediately preceding the conclusion of 
peace Bolingbroke's hands were full. Ministers could not 
meet Parliament till the Peace had been signed. The 
death of Louis XIV. might take place any day ; Anne's 
health was most precarious. All sorts of delays occurred. 
The Peace was at last signed with the greatest haste, and 



76 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBUOKE, 

Philip's promise was taken as sufficient security. But the 
Catalans opposed the Peace, refused to lay down their 
arms, and so played into the hands of the Spaniards. 
Philip considered himself absolved from his promise, and 
so the unfortunate necessity of hurrying on the Peace of 
Utrecht led Bolingbroke into the oversight which has cast 
the greatest blot on his statesmanship. 

No fault can be found with the advantages gained for 
Great Britain. In establishing Enghsh influence in the 
Mediterranean, and in securing for her an advantageous 
position in North America, he anticipated the policy of the 
elder Pitt and of Lord Beaconsfield. 

In securing considerable trade concessions, he showed 
a clear appreciation of the fact that England's interests 
were colonial and commercial, rather than European and 
political. That foreign statesmen did not think he 
neglected English interests may be gathered from the 
fact that when Tor cy, in the summer of 1711, was first 
made acquainted with the British demands in favour of 
tlieir commerce, he felt convinced that the granting of 
them would throw the whole trade of the world into 
British hands. From Spain Bolingbroke obtained trading 
advantages then regarded as considerable, in virtue of an 
arrangement known as The Asiento compact, in accordance 
with which England was to enjoy the privilege of supply- 
ing for thirty years some portion of the Spanish colonies 
in South America, as well as the Spanish West Indies, 
with negroes. The further important privilege of sending 
annually one ship, of 500 tons burden,, to Spanish South 
America with merchandise, was also secured. In pro- 
curing for English traders an opening in South America, 
Bolingbroke was successfully carrynig out a policy which 
Cromwell had in vain attempted to inaugurate. "The 
first great breach," says the author of The Expansion 



TEE PEACE OF UTBECRT. 77 

of England (p. 133), " was made in that intolerable Spanish 
monopoly, which then closed the greater part of Central 
and Southern America to the trade of the world." Hence- 
forward English interests increase in South America, 
English trading forces its way into the Spanish colonies, 
and \yalpole, in 1739, finds himself much against his 
will compelled to recognise the demands of English 
merchants and to continue Bolingbroke's policy. 

Bolingbroke's Commercial Treaty with France marks 
the first though premature attempt to establish a Free 
Trade policy, and anticipated the Commercial Treaty 
made with France by the younger Pitt in 1786. He 
had formed great hopes of the advantages to be gained 
from such a treaty. 

"I believe it will be of no nse," be had written during the negotia- 
tions to the Duke of Shrewsbury, " to insinuate to Monsieur de Torcy 
that as, among other things, the factious people here intend, by their 
opposition to the settlement of any trade with France, to keep the two 
nations estranged from each other, to cultivate the prejudices which 
have been formerly raised, and which dui'ing two long wars have 
taken deep root, and also to prevent the wearing of them out, which 
would be the natural necessary consequence of an open advantageous 
trade ; so we, on our part, and the Ministers of France on theirs, ought 
to counterwork their designs, and to finish what relates to commerce 
more in the character of statesmen than of merchants." 

In drawing up his Treaty of Commerce he received 
considerable assistance from Arthur Moore, a Commis- 
sioner of Trade, and a well-known authority in all matters 
connected with finance. 

But the first of Free Traders among English statesmen 
was not to be permitted to carry out his liberal com- 
mercial policy, and the Treaty of Commerce was violently 
opposed by the trading classes. After a prolonged debate, 
in which the celebrated 8th and 9th Free Trade clauses 
were defended by Arthur Moore, the defection of Sir 



78 HENRY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

Thomas Hanmer to the Opposition decided the fate of 
the Commercial Treaty, and the Protection system was 
saved by nine votes. 

Bolingbroke himself in later days by no means regarded 
the Treaty of Utrecht with nnmixed satisfaction. On his 
retirement in 1735 to Chanteloup, in Touraine, he wrote 
to Lord Cornbury : — 

" I shall not be surprised if yoii think, that the Peace of Utrecht 
was not answerable to the success of the war, nor to the efforts made 
in it. I think so myself, and have always owned, even when it was 
making and made, that I thought so." And, in his letter to Sir William 
"Wyndham, he says, " I am far from thinking the Treaties or the 
negotiations which led to them, exempt from fault." 

In the same letter he points out some of the reasons 
why the Peace was not altogether satisfactory. In 
consequence of the policy of the Whigs, each of the 
Allies had been taught *'to raise his demands to the 
most extravagant height " ; they had been encouraged 
to this, first, " by the engagements which we had entered 
into with several of them, and secondly, by the manner 
in which we had treated with France in 1710." The 
conduct of the Whigs was throughout most unpatriotic. 
Though a small minority of the nation, the Whig 
Party was far superior in intelligence to the bulk of 
their opponents. The Whig leaders were none the less 
animated with a bitter spirit of faction. Obstruction in 
domestic matters is well known in the Parliamentary 
history of the latter half of the nineteenth century, but 
during the last four years of Anne's reign the Whigs did 
all in their power to hamper and obstruct Ministers, 
who were engaged in one of the most difficult and 
delicate diplomatic tasks ever presented to English 
statesmen. Bolingbroke's own convincing indictment of 
the disgraceful party spirit then shown by the Whigs 



TEE PEACE OF UTRECET. 79 

has, I believe, never been weakened by any specious 
defence. 

" If the means employed to bring about the peace were feeble, and 
in one respect contemptible, those employed to break the negotiations 
were strong and formidable. As soon as the first suspicion of a 
Treaty's being on foot crept abroad into the world, the whole alliance 
united with a powerful party in the nation to obstruct it. From that 
hour to the moment the Congress of Utreclit finished, no one measure 
possible to be taken was omitted to traverse every advance that was 
made in this work, to intimidate, to allure, to embarrass every person 
concerned in it. This was done without any regard either to decency 
or good policy, and from hence it followed that passion and humour 
mingled themselves on each side. A great part of what we did ibr the 
peace, and for what others did against it, can be accounted for on no 
other principle." 

Then again, Bolingbroke had little help from his 
colleagues, while his own relations with Oxford rendered 
his difficult task still more difficult. Oxford, who has been 
styled "the Prince of wire-pulling and back-stair intrigue," 
but of whose political skill there is no question, had 
early in 1711 begun to regard Bolingbroke in the light 
of a possible rival. Though like Walpole an excellent 
party manager, Oxford, partly owing to bad health, partly 
through his failure to establish his ideal government, 
had decidedly deteriorated. He was at this time a 
vacillating, feeble politician, a miserable, inarticulate 
debater, a man wanting as a rule in decision of character, 
deficient in any fixed principles of conduct or policy, timid, 
fond of procrastination. Bolingbroke was a brilliant orator, 
clear-sighted, remarkable for his iron will and resolution, 
full of self-confidence, capable of conceiving and carrying 
out a statesmanlike policy. It is not surprising that men 
so differently constituted should have gradually become 
alienated. Several minor matters had tended to sow 
distrust between them. The attack on Oxford by 
Guiscard was probably meant for Bolingbroke, and the 



80 EENB Y ST. JOHN, VISCO UNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

latter's friends had openly stated their conviction that 
Bolingbroke deserved the glory which Oxford had then 
cained. Durins- Oxford's absence at that time from the 
House of Commons Bolingbroke, when the matter of the 
thirty-five millions unaccounted for by the Whigs was 
under discussion, had refused to allow his friend Bridges 
Paymaster of the Forces under Godolphin, to be attacked. 
After his recovery, Oxford appeared very seldom in the 
House, and from this time the rivalry between him and 
Bolingbroke may be said to have begun. 

"Mr. Harley," he writes to Orrery on May the 18th, 1711, "since 
his recovery, has not appeared in the Council, or at the Treasury at 
all, and very seldom in the House of Commons ; we, who are reputed to 
be in his intimacy, have very few opportunities of seeing him, and none 
of talking freely with him. As he is the only true channel through 
which the Queen's pleasure is conveyed, so there is and must be a 
perfect stagnation till he is pleased to open himself and set the water 
flowing." 

Bolino-broke's failure to secure the coveted earldom in 
1712 still further alienated the two Ministers, and, as 
might be expected under these circumstances, Oxford, 
during the course of the negotiations, was rather a 
hindrance than a help. His influence with the Queen, 
however, rendered him indispensable to a Ministry in days 
when the Sovereign's influence was enormous. The 
position held by Oxford is well described by Bolingbroke 
in the following sentence : — 

" His concurrence was necessary to everything we did by his rank 
in the State ; and yet this man seemed sometimes asleep and some 
times at play." 

Bolingbroke was thus throughout the negotiations in a 
position in which no English statesman, while carrying 
through Treaties of such magnitude as those signed at 
Utrecht, ever found himself. He never had the full 



THE FEAGE OF UTBECET. 81 

confidence of either the extreme or of the moderate 
Tories. " The ship is rotten," said Swift on March the 
4th, 1711 ; "The crew all against the Ministry." In 
December, 1711, Nottingham, with a following of extreme 
Tories, had deserted the Ministry and joined the Whigs. 
The Whigs openly intrigued in London with foreign 
envoys against the Government; the residences of Gallas 
and of Buys became in turn the head-quarters of the 
Whig Opposition ; the lack of decision among his 
colleagues hampered the course of the negotiations, and 
Oxford, who w^as virtually Prime Minister, regarded 
Bolingbroke with suspicion, envy, and resentment. 

These considerations would incline an impartial reader 
to view with some charitableness the means taken to brino" 
about the Peace of Utrecht, and to weigh well Bollng- 
broke's own explanationof the deficiencies in that Treaty. 
The wonder is that with so many impediments, and in the 
face of so much hostility, with the possibility of the Queen's 
death at any moment before him, Bolingbroke should have 
during these two long years conducted the negotiations 
with such energy and firmness, and, on the whole, with 
such success. The Peace of Utrecht was a great peace, 
and not unworthv of the statesman who neo^otlated it. 

In the European struggles of the eighteenth century, 
the union of France and Spain against England came 
about not by dynastic but by commercial and colonial 
considerations. As long as there was any likelihood of 
Philip asserting his claim to the French crown, there was 
hostility between the two courts ; but, as soon as Louis XV. 
had a son, dynastic jealousies disappeared, and the 
countries found a common ground of union in hostility to 
England's commercial policy. That the Pyrenees ceased 
to exist during a great part of the eighteenth century was 
not due to the foreign policy of Bolingbroke in allowing a 

G 



82 EENBT ST. JOHN, VISCO UNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

Bourbon to rule in Spain, but to the inevitable trading 
rivaby between England on the one hand, and France and 
Spain on the other. 

The War of the Spanish Succession occupies a very 
important position in the second Hundred Years' War 
between England and France. For, though it was not 
till the Peace of Paris in 1763 that England could claim 
to be victor in the struggle, the power of France never 
recovered from the effects of the war which was ended by 
the Peace of Utrecht. France could never again, till the 
Eevolution, adopt the aggressive attitude assumed by 
Louis XIV. She never recovered from the financial 
difficulties which the Spanish Succession War brought on 
her, and the army never regained its prestige till the 
events following 1789 gave her new life and energy. 
From 1713, too, her social difficulties became each year 
more serious. To England the year 1713 is also a land- 
mark, but not in the history of her decline. For the 
marvellous expansion that was in store for her, England 
required a long period of peace, and the Treaty of 
Utrecht, like the Peace of 1815, was followed by an extra- 
ordinary industrial development. " In the history of the 
Expansion of England, one of the greatest epochs is 
marked by the Treaty of Utrecht. . . . The Treaty 
of Utrecht left England the first state in the world, 
and she continued for some years to be first without 
a rival." {The Expansion of England, pp. 131, 132.) 
In breaking the power of France, and in enabling 
England to escape with advantage to herself from a 
costly war, and so to prepare for that immense colonial 
and territorial development which gave her Canada and 
eventually India, Bolingbroke played an important part. 
He may indeed be regarded as one of the founders 
of England's Imperial greatness. 



THE PEACE OF UTBEOHT. 83 

It is well to remember that the Tory policy of interfering 
as little as possible on the Continent, of strengthening 
the navy, of attacking the colonial possessions of our 
enemies and sweeping the seas was the policy followed in 
very similar circmnstances by both the elder and the 
younger Pitt. And to Bolingbroke must be given the 
credit of having in a most remarkable way attempted to 
carry out a foreign policy so successfully adopted in the 
Seven Years' War and in the struggles against Napoleon. 



84 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBGKE. 



CHAPTER lY. 

THE SUCCESSION QUESTION. 

1713-1714. 

Possibility of a Stuart Restoration — Bolingbroke's real policy — 
Eeasons for the belief that he was a Jacobite — Opinion of Mr. 
Wyon — Bolingbroke never a Jacobite — State of politics on conclu- 
sion of Peace of Utrecht — The Jacobites, the Hanoverian Tories, 
the Neutrals — Eeconstruction of the Ministry — The " Crisis " 
— Unpopularity of Harley's trimming policy — The Tories rally 
round Bolingbroke— His extreme measures — Activity of the 
Whigs — Attempt to bring the Electoral Prince into England — - 
Rage of the Queen — Reward oifered for apprehension of the 
Pretender — End of the Session, July 9 — Approach of the Crisis 
— Dismissal of Oxford, July 27 — The Treasury to be put in 
Commission — Difficulty in choosing Commissioners — Illness of 
the Queen — Shrewsbury appointed Treasurer — Death of Anne — • 
Ruin of Bolingbroke's plans — His failure clue to various causes — 
Policy and position of Shrewsbury — A consideration of Boling- 
broke's policy at the end of Aune's reign — Vigour of Whigs. 

The Peace of Utrecht was a great step towards the 
consolidation of the Tory party. The Nonconformists 
had been weakened by the Bill against Occasional Con- 
formity, and the moneyed interest had been attacked 
by the Property Qualification Bill. By the Peace of 
Utrecht, England had returned to a policy of isolation, 
of freedom from Continental connections, and was in a 
position to turn her attention to the pressing question 
of the Succession. 

The possibility of a Stuart Restoration on the death of 
Anne has often been debated. It has been the general 



THE SUCCESSION QUESTION. 85 

opinion, till very recent years, that the whole object of 
Bolingbroke's policy was a Stuart Restoration, that all 
his measures were taken with that end in view, and that, 
had the Queen lived a month or two longer, the over- 
throw of the Act of Settlement would have been followed 
by the return of the Pretender to St. James'. 

The Scotch Jacobites and the French Ministers were 
convinced that Bolingbroke was in the interest of the 
Pretender, and immerous letters from the French emis- 
saries Gaultier and DTberville to Torcy can be quoted in 
support of their opinion. This was also the Whig view 
of Bolingbroke's policy. As early as Novem )er, 1710, 
Swift had written sarcastically, that " a Secretary of State 
cannot resign but the Pretender is at bottom ; the Queen 
cannot dissolve a Parliament but it is a plot to dethrone 
herself and bring in the Pretender." Walpole always 
declared that the leaders of the Whigs were fully 
aware of the Jacobite designs of the Tory Ministers. 
Every motive of party interest combined to induce the 
Whigs to adopt the cry, that the succession was in dano-er 
as long as the Tories were in power. 

That this view^ of Bolingbroke's policy was unsound, 
may be gathered from the fact, that after the accession of 
George L, the efforts of the whole Whig party were 
never able to substantiate the accusations they broucht 
forward. And the reason of their failure to Jo so is 
obvious. The Restoration of the Stuarts was no part of 
the policy of Oxford and Bolingbroke. The Protestant 
Succession was never in danger. Bolingbroke himself 
had no religious scruples which w^ould have deterred him 
from accepting James Edward, had the country declared 
in his favour. But the project of a Restoration so long as 
the Pretender remained a Roman Catholic was never a 
feasible one, and both Oxford and Bolingbroke knew it. 



8G EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE, 

Oil December the 28th, 1713, Bolmgbroke had told 
D'Iberville that the Pretender had no chance of success, 
*'tant qu'il sera Catholique, pas meme en epousant une 
princesse Protestante ; " and in February of the next year 
Gaultier, writing a letter at, he says, Oxford's dictation to 
the Pretender says plainly ; *' Si vous voulez succecler 
surement a la reine votre soeur, il est absolument neces- 
saire que vous dissimuliez votre religion." Speaking of 
the accession of George I., Bolingbroke, in his Letter to 
Sir William Wyndham, declares plainly that " nothing is 
more certain than this truth, that there was at that time 
no formed design in the party, whatever views some 
particular men might have against his Majesty's accession 
to the throne " ; and, in his State of Parties at the 
Accession of George L, he makes the following weighty 
statement : — 

" There was no design on foot during the last four years of Queen 
Anne's reign to set aside the succession of the House of Hanover, and 
to place the crown on the head of the Pretender to it. . . . Neither 
could a design of that nature have been carried on so long, though it 
was not carried into execution, without leaving some traces, which 
would have appeared when such strict inquisitions were made. . . . 
But, laying aside all arguments of the probable kind, I deny the fact 
absolutely ; and I have the better title to expect credit, because it 
could not be true without my knowledge, or at least suspicion, of it ; 
and because even they who believed in it — for all who asserted did not 
believe it — had no proof to produce, nor liave to this hour, but vain 
surmises, nor any autiiority to rest upon but the clamour of party." 

During Anne's reign national interests were com- 
pletely subordinated to party interests. For party 
motives a war just and necessary in its earlier stages had 
been unduly prolonged. Mainly for party motives, though 
at the time they happened to coincide with the national 
interests, the Peace of Utrecht was m.ade. Party motives 
led the Whigs to oppose by every means in their power 



THE SUCCESSION QUESTION, 87 

the progress of the negotiations ; and the same motives, 
the same desire for place, prompted them to declare after 
the accession of George I. that all Tories were Jacobites. 
Swift, who was intimate with both Oxford and Boling- 
broke, always declared his utter disbelief that the Act of 
Settlement was in any danger. 

"Had there ever been," he writes in 1716, "the least overture or 
interest in bringing iu the Pretender, during my acquaintance with 
the last Ministry, I think I must have been very stupid not to have 
picked up some discoveries or suspicious." 

Lord Peterborough too on his deathbed declared that 
he knew Bolingbroke had no scheme for a Stuart Restor- 
ation. 

To hastily conclude that the whole aim of the Tory 
Ministry, during Anne's* later years, was to effect the 
return of James Edward is to misunderstand the position 
of both Oxford and Bolingbroke. The former, though 
ostensibly leader of the Tory party, was a Tory by 
accident. He had no real sympathy with High Church 
principles ; he had little in common with the country 
gentlemen, who were the rank and file of his followers. 
He was the head of a thorough-going Tory Govern- 
ment by no wish of his own, but by force of circum- 
stances, which no one regretted more than himself. Like 
Marlborough, Shrewsbury, and Somerset, Oxford was an 
opportunist. He was not " insincere " in the sense in 
which Bolingbroke applied the term to him. He was 
certainly " unsound " in the matter of Toryism, as 
Bolingbroke conceived Toryism ; but, throughout Anne's 
reign he acted according to his lights, and to his 
theory of Government, with absolute consistency. Like 
Anne, he was always desirous to avoid throwing himself 
into the hands of a party. Like Bolingbroke, he had 



88 HENB Y ST. JOHN, VISCO UNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

formed in his own mind a very distinct conception of a 
perfect form of government. According to Oxford, a 
Government should not be composed of violent politi- 
cians, like the members of the Whig junto, or of the 
October Club, men whose actions bore the impress of 
party bias. On the contrary, Ministers should be chosen 
from among moderate men, who would avoid the Scylla 
of extreme Whiggism and the Charybdis of violent 
Toryism. In this ideal Ministry moderate Tories should 
certainly preponderate, but the presence of a few of the 
more statesmanlike of the Whigs would act as a check 
on the partisan spirit of the extreme Tories. As soon, 
therefore, as any Government tended in his opinion to 
become a cabal of party politicians, Oxford, though 
himself a Minister, at once threw all his influence in 
the scale against his own colleagues. In 1704 he 
had intrigued successfully against Rochester and Not- 
tingham, in 1707 he employed all his powers to upset 
Grodolphin, and with him the Whig theory of Govern- 
ment by party ; in 1710 he attempted to form a moderate 
and comprehensive Government ; and in 1713 and 1714 
he took up a position of passive opposition to the great 
body of his own followers, who viewed with dislike his 
schemes of compromise and moderation, and who had 
begun to look to Bolingbroke for guidance. 

That statesman's ideal Government was very far re- 
moved from that designed by Oxford. He had no real 
sympathy with the High Church temper of many of the 
Tories, and with regard to the Succession question he was 
an opportunist. But he had a distinct programme, and a 
clear political ideal. The consolidation of Toryism had 
nothing necessarily to do with Jacobitism, and was to be 
carried out, irrespective of all questions connected with 
the succession. 



TEE SUCCESSION QUESTION. 89 

" Bolingbroke's ' Tory System," says Mr. Harrop, in his Bolingbrolte 
(p. 17ft), "meant the okl constitution in Chm-ch and State— rigid political 
and religious tests, government by royal initiative in the interest of the 
clergy and landed gentry, the exclusion from civil rights of the trading 
and dissenting classes." 

That there were innumerable difficulties in carrying out 
this policy of disfranchising the Nonconformists, and of 
vesting the representation to a very large extent in the 
hands of the landed proprietors, it is needless to assert. 
But a very large proportion of the nation was at this time 
Tory, and this policy undoubtedly commended itself to 
the great majority of the Tories. It is quite possible that 
had Bolingbroke only found sufficient time and oppor- 
tunity; had he not been hampered by the Queen's 
hesitation to dismiss Oxford, and by his own want of 
influence over the whole of the Tory party before Anne's 
death, his scheme, though reactionary, might have been 
realised. A series of Acts would for a few years have 
protected the Church and country interest, and during 
those years the influence of the Church would have 
become so widely extended that there would have been 
no cause to fear that '• any rich or factious body of men " 
would be in a position to choose " an ill majority of the 
House of Commons." Such was the opinion held by 
Swift, who advocated immediate and sweeping measures. 
And Bolingbroke, " playing the part of an orthodox 
Tory," had every intention of carrying out a definite 
and ably conceived policy. 

His immediate object, then, was the establishment of a 
strong Tory Government to carry out a Tory policy in 
the interests of the Churcli and landed gentry, at home 
and abroad. He wished to succeed Oxford as First 
Minister, to place the whole administration in the hands 
of the Tories and to make the Tory party master of the 
situation. He would then Be able to dictate his ovvn terms 



90 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCO UNT BOLINGBBOKK 

to either George or the Pretender. He had no intention 
of effecting a coup-d'etat after the manner of a Monk or 
even of a Bonaparte. Bolingbroke was a statesman, and 
looked to reahsing his scheme by means of constitutional 
forms. 

" A calm perusal," writes Mr. Wyon, in his History of Great Britain 
during the Beign of Queen Anne, " of all that testimony upon which any 
reliance can 1)6 founded, must convince any unprejudiced person that 
both Oxford and Bolingbroke would have been as zealous in promoting 
the succession of the Hanoverians as their Whig antagonists, could 
they have seen any reasonable prospects for their continuing in power, 
with that family on the throne " (vol. ii. 461). 

And in another place he says that the objects of Oxford 
and Bolingbroke : — 

**in seeing the Stuart agents and assiu-ing them of their attachment 
to the cause were the same as those of Marlborough : (1) to keep the 
party quiet, and secure their interest ; (2) to provide for their own 
safety, if by some extraordinary turn in the wheel of fortune, the 
Pretender should gain the day " (vol. ii. 516, note). 

Bolingbroke was never a Jacobite, that is to say, he 
never had any settled design of bringing in James Edward. 
That he had dealings with Jacobite agents and delivered 
himself of Jacobite sentiments is true. But it was neces- 
sary to gain over the Jacobite section in England, in order 
to secure a strong position at Anne's death. It was also 
politic, seeing how impossible it was to penetrate into the 
future. That he had intrigued with the Pretender is un- 
doubted ; but who had not ? Godolphin, Marlborough, 
Oxford, Jersey, all were tarred with the same brush. 
Bolingbroke, like most of the politicians of the day, 
negotiated with both the Elector and the Pretender. 
The unmistakable preference of George for the Whigs 
tended undoubtedly to incline the Ministers to weigh 
seriously the chances of the Pretender ; but Bolingbroke's 



TEE SUCCESSION QUESTION. 91 

immediate object was, by consolidating the Tory party, to 
command the situation on the Queen's death. The Tory 
Government would then be ready for any contingency. 
If, contrary to expectation, the nation declared for James 
Edward, or if the Act of Settlement was upheld and 
George succeeded, the Tories would be strong enough 
to secure an arrangement favourable to their party. 

He had, as he afterwards said, no settled resolution as 
to what would happen on the Queen's death. As to the 
events that might take place after Anne's reign, " few or 
none of us," he says, " to speak the truth, had any very 
decided opinions." If James Edward had only changed 
his creed, or even dissembled, there is little doubt he 
would have succeeded Anne. But Bolingbroke was never 
anxious for such a Restoration, at any rate until he had 
consolidated the Tory party. If James had returned, 
like Charles IL, free and unfettered, before the " scheme 
of four years modelling " had been carried out, the Tory 
position would have been by no means an enviable one. 

" The Tories," wrote Bolingbroke years later to Wyndbam, "always 
looked on a restoration of the Stuarts as sure means to throw the 
whole power of Government into their hands. I am confident that 
they would have found themselves deceived." 

When, however, all was uncertain; when the Queen 
might die any day and the crisis be upon the Ministers ; 
when Oxford, overcome by the uncertainty and difficulty 
of his position, had lost all power of action, the only 
man who showed the qualities of a statesman, who 
bad any fixed policy, was Bolingbroke. During the 
fifteen months that elapsed between the conclusion of 
peace and the Queen's death, he made a determined 
efi'ort to reconstruct Toryism on a sound basis. But 
events were ag-alnst him. The dissensions amons" his 
supporters aided the vigorous attacks of his opponents, 



92 HENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

and just when it seemed that the principal obstacles in 
the way of success were removed, when a few weeks would 
probably have seen the Tory party in a strong position, 
the Queen died, and Bolingbroke's opportunities as a 
statesman were over. 

The Peace of Utrecht had been hurried on, in order 
to clear the ground for the consolidation of the Tory 
party. " The Peace," he said, " had been judged with 
reason to be the only solid foundation whereupon we 
could erect a Tory system." But Bolingbroke's hopes 
were from the first doomed to disappointment. The 
conclusion of the Peace, so far from clearing the o-round 
and rendering his efforts to " erect a Tory system " which 
should defy all the vicissitudes common to political parties, 
brought with it grave difficulties. " Instead of gatherino- 
strength either as a ministry or as a party, we grew 
weaker every day." Many of the terms of the Peace 
were unpopular even in England, and the Whigs seized 
the first opportunity of criticising the Treaties of Peace 
and Commerce which were laid before Parliament in May, 
The Commercial Treaty which, if carried, would have 
established Free Trade with France, was thrown out 
by a union of Whigs and Hanoverian Tories. "The 
very work," wrote Bolingbroke with reference to the 
Peace of Utrecht, "which ought to have been the basis 
of our strength, was in part demolished before our eyes 
and we were stoned with the ruins of it." Early in 1714 
the Whigs, supported by many Tories, and indeed by the 
general feeling of the country, criticised the absence of any 
satisfactory efforts on the part of the Ministers in favour 
of the unfortunate Catalans, and voted an address to the 
Queen, asking her to renew her efforts for the expulsion of 
the Pretender from Lorraine. It was with some difficulty 
that the Tories carried in both Houses a motion of 



TEE SUCCESSION QUESTION. 93 

approval of the Treaties of Peace. The Whigs had, 
however, raised the cry of *' Danger to the Succession," 
and the Tory strongholds were shaken, while dissensions 
had already broken out among the supporters of the 
Groverninent. 

The Tory party was during these years clearly divided 
into three branches, the Jacobites, the Hanoverian Tories, 
and the Neutrals. Of these the most insignificant in 
point of numbers were the Jacobites — the party which 
firmly believed in hereditary right, and desired, under 
any circumstances, to bring about the Kesto ration of the 
Stuarts. Swift declared the party, exclusive of Papists 
and Nonjurors, did not number five hundred: "and, 
amongst these, not six of any quality or consequence." 
In their ranks must be numbered Ormond, Harcourt, 
^Buckingham, and Atterbury. The Peace of Utrecht was 
no part of the Jacobite programme, for peace with France 
destroyed all hope of securing French aid — so essential 
for the realisation of their schemes. But their relations 
with the Tory party compelled them to support the pacific 
policy of the Government. They, however, made no secret 
of their indignation at the Barrier Treaty concluded 
by the Ministers with Holland, in January, 1713, by 
which England was bound to support Holland if her 
Barrier was attacked, and Holland engaged to supply 
6,000 men if the Protestant succession in England was 
endangered. 

The Hanoverian Tories or Whimsicals, those "odd 
animals," as Lockhart calls them, were the men who were 
devotedly attached to the Church of England. In the 
House of Lords this party, under Nottingham, had in 
December, 1710, voted with the Whigs against the 
Government, on consideration of securing the support of 
the Whigs in passing tHe Occasional Conformity Bill. 



94 HENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

" They were Churchmen first and legitimists afterwards." 
They represented the views held by the more enlightened 
and discriminating of the Tories, who were ready to 
uphold loyally the Act of Settlement if their ecclesiastical 
principles were at stake. In the House of Commons 
their leader was Sir Thomas Hanmer, an ardent 
Hanoverian. It was the coalition of Hanmer and his 
party with the Whigs that wrecked Bolingbroke's 
Commercial Treaty with France. Bolingbroke had no 
patience with them. '' As soon as the Treaties were 
perfected and laid before Parliament, the scheme of these 
gentlemen began to disclose itself entirely. Their love 
of the Peace, like other passions cooled, by enjoyment." 

The revolt of these Hanoverian Tories shows that 
Bolingbroke had as yet by no means secured the confidence 
of a most influential section of his own party. 

The Neutrals represented the great mass of the party. 
For the most part country gentlemen, their views on 
the Succession question were undecided ; they hated 
Whigs, Nonconformists and the moneyed interest. They 
dreaded Popery and French influence ; at the same time 
they detested all Germans. They wished to see the in- 
terests of the country gentlemen and of the Church supreme 
in the Government. They desired a Tory king. Boling- 
broke was their avowed leader, and Bolingbroke's Tory 
system would have suited them admirably. But Boling- 
broke never secured the full confidence of either the 
country gentlemen or of the country clergy. He never 
was a Churchman ; he never understood his own followers 
and he failed entirely to secure their hearty co-operation. 
His reputation as a dissolute man of the world, talented, 
but none the less sceptical, caused him to forfeit in great 
measure their respect. Tiiis was undoubtedly serious, for 
the success of his efforts in 1713 and 1714 depended in 



THE SUCCESSION QUESTION. 95 

great measure on the amount of support he could secure 
from the bulk of the Tory party. 

The Government was evidently far from being stronf^- or 
united. The successful attack of the Whigs, aided by the 
Tory secession on the Commercial Treaty, had shaken 
their position. Bolingbroke attributed the rejection of 
that Treaty to Oxford's bad management, and by July 
the feud between the two Ministers became most serious 
to the stability of the Government. The Queen's health 
was precarious ; the Court of Hanover was known to be 
hostile to the Tories, and it was clear that the accession 
of the Elector would be followed by a series of merciless 
attacks on the Tory Ministers. There is no doubt that 
had Bolingbroke possessed sufficient influence with the 
Queen, and had not been hampered by Oxford, he would, 
in the summer of 1713, have strengthened his hold in the 
country by removing all Whigs from positions of au- 
thority, and giving their posts to supporters of his policy. 
Seeing the Tory party firmly estabhshed, the Elector 
would have had no choice but to enter into an arrano-e- 
ment which would, at any rate, have secured the Tories 
from the vengeance of the Whigs. Though unable to 
carry out his policy in its entirety, Bolingbroke, by dint 
of his determined will, did, however, bring about some 
important changes, calculated to place his party on a more 
stable basis. The interchange of letters between him and 
Oxford on July 25th and 27th was followed by the partial 
reconstruction of the Ministry. Dartmouth became Privy 
Seal ; Bromley, Secretary of State for the Northern, and 
Bolingbroke Secretary of State for the Southern Depart- 
ment. W^yndham was made Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
and a third Secretaryship was revived for Mar, who was 
to have charge of Scottish affairs. Ormond had been 
secured by the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports, and 



96 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCO UNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

Atterbury and Robinson were made Bishops of Rochester 
and London respectively. The result of these changes 
was that a Secretary of State now sat in the House of 
Commons, and the correspondence with France was at last 
in Bolingbroke's own department. These changes, more- 
over, strengthened the position of the Ministry, and 
illustrates clearly the line that would have been taken by 
Bolingbroke had he only been at the head of affairs. 
He, and he alone, could have guided the Administration 
safely through the difficulties that beset it. In August, 
1713, Parliament was dissolved, and Bolingbroke, whose 
relations with his wife w^ere somewhat strained, spent the 
autumn at Ashdown Park with his dogs and horses. The 
country was still decidedly Tory, and Anne's last Parlia- 
ment met with a strong Tory majority. 

During the autumn Bolingbroke's influence at Court 
had continually increased. He had secured the friend- 
^hi'^ of Mrs. Masham ; he was in constant attendance on 
the Queen ; he exercised an extensive supervision over 
foreio-n affairs, the Irish administration, and the business 
of the Admiralty. His influence at Court was growing 
stronger each week, and we read how on December the 
23rd he wrote eighteen letters in order that he might 
spend an undisturbed Christmas Day and the succeeding 
fortnight with the Queen and Mrs. Masham. But on 
Christmas Eve Anne was taken ill, and for two weeks she 
was in a critical condition. All through January, 1713-14, 
alarming reports w^ere in circulation and the nation was 
in a state of feverish excitement. The stocks fell, and 
there was a panic in the Exchange. Prior, who was in 
Paris, was seized with alarm : — 

*' If," lie said, "the prospect be dreadful to tlie masters of Mortimer 
Castle, Hiatoii St. George, Stanton Harcourt, and Bucklebury, what 
must it Le to friend Matt ? " 



TEE SUCCESSION QUESTION. 97 

Steele at once published his Crisis, which was immedi- 
ately answered by Swift's Puhlic Spirit of the Whigs. 
The Tory chiefs had again a splendid opportunity of 
carrying out Bolingbroke's scheme, of taking vigorous 
measures, and of securing to the Tories a monopoly of 
power. Anne had been for the moment roused to great 
anger ot the conduct of the Whigs. Had the Ministers 
been united, they might have Induced the Queen to lay 
a.^ide her policy of moderation, and " act a clear game 
with the Tories." But Bollngbroke had not the supreme 
control of affairs, Harley made no attempt to carry out a 
scheme with which he had no sympathy, the opportunity 
was lost, and Anne returned to her former policy of 
governing by compromise and conciliation. Even at this 
crisis it is plain that Bolingbroke had no definite schemes 
for a Jacobite Restoration, for on April 13th, 1714, he 
wrote : — 

" What will happen no man is able to foretell ; but this proposition is 
certain, that if the members of the Clim-ch of England lay aside their 
little piques and resentments, and cement closely together, they will be 
too powerful a body to be ill-treated." 

It had become quite evident to him, at the beginning of 
1714, that no more time must be lost, or the death of the 
Queen would find the Tories utterly disorganised. The 
strained relations and conflicting views of the Tory 
leaders were reflected in the jealousies and rivalries 
which had penetrated deep into the ranks of their 
supporters. At a time when order and decisive counsels 
were of the utmost Importance there was only confusion 
and vacillation. " Tlie party," wrote Bollngbroke (In 
April), " stands at gaze, expecting the Court will regulate 
them, and lead them on ; and the Court seems in a 
lethargy." And again at the same time he declared : 
" The prospect before us Is dark and melancholy, and 



rr 



98 HENBY ST. JOHN, LOBD BOLINGBROKE. 

what will be the end, no man can foretell." His difficulties 
with the Treasurer became each day more serious. 
Oxford had hitherto insisted on continuino^ his favourite 
policy of compromise, of trying to conciliate the Whigs, of 
attempting to run with the hare and hunt with the 
hounds. Godolpliin's Lord Lieutenants were still supreme 
in the counties. The country remained to a great extent 
in Whig hands. In the Lockliart Papers we see the 
expression of a deep discontent. 

" Several of the leading men of the October Olub thought it now 
high time to push matters a little more briskly ; they had hitherto 
Bupported the Lord Oxford, and, now tliat Peace was concluded, they 
represented to him that they expected the performance of what was 
often promised, and what was absolutely necessary for the Queen's, 
his own, and their security." 

These men were not at all satisfied with Oxford's 
attempts to put them off with soft words, and they began 
to look to Bolingbroke, and : — 

"thought that they had gained a great point if they could draw him 
in to set liimstlf at their head ; and this he was ready enough to do, as, 
by his frank way of behaviour, he had already gained a great interest, 
affected daily to be more and more popular, and aimed at nothing less 
than being Prime Minister of State.*' 

They accordingly interviewed Bolingbroke, who de- 
clared himself in entire agreement with them, and promised 
that he would carry out resolute and steady measures. 
They then decided to support him and to follow his 
directions, which were that they should act with caution 
and not *'% in the face of the Ministry, seeing it might 
probably prevent matters being brought about to their 
satisfaction " It was indeed absolutely necessary that 
the condition of affairs should be changed without delay. 
The whole Government of the country must be placed 
in the hands of the Tories, the leadership of the party 



TEE SUCCESSION QUESTION. 99 

must be wrested from the incapable hands of Oxford, 
and the administration completely reorganised. In 1712 
Swift had prophesied that Bolingbroke would one day be 
at the head of affairs. Since 1711 the Ministers had 
become gradually more and more estranged, and all the 
efforts of Swift had failed to reconcile two men of such 
opposite temperaments as Oxford and Bolingbroke. 
31ature reflection in later days confirmed Bolingbroke in 
the opinion, that if Oxford had only used his magnificent 
opportunities, which the confidence of the Queen and of 
the Tory party, in the early years of his Ministry, had 
afforded him, the history of the failure of the Tories on 
Anne's death would never have been written. He now 
accused Oxford of not caring for his party, for the 
Queen, or for the nation. According to Bolingbroke, the 
Treasurer thought only of making himself safe in the 
future, and therefore tried to conciliate the Whigs, and 
adopted a temporising policy which pleased no one. His 
only determined view was to raise his own family. He 
was " eternally agitated backwards and forwards." *• The 
ultimate end of his policy never extended farther than 
living from day to day." Being suspicious, he judged 
ill of all mankind, and was so credulous, that Bolingbroke 
asserts, " he never knew a man so capable of being the 
bubble of his own distrust and jealousy." Even as late 
as in the winter of 1713-14 he might have regained the 
confidence of the whole party if he had chosen, and 
Bolingbroke asserts: "he would have stifled his private 
animosity, and would have acted under him with as much 
zeal as ever." But Oxford lost his opportunity, and at 
the beginning of 1714 had no following; Bolingbroke 
had completely superseded him in the estimation of the 
Tory party. The old friendship between them was 
completely at an end. Bolingbroke's mind was made 

H 2 



100 HENBYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE, 

up ; he determined to seize the leadership of the Tories. 
Measures were at once adopted to satisfy the Tory 
squires. Eesolutions were passed in both Houses sanc- 
tioning the Peace ; Steele was expelled the House of 
Commons for having written the Crisis. In order to 
induce the members of the Church of England to " lay 
aside their little piques and resentments and cement 
closely together," a most tyrannical measure, called the 
Schism Act, was introduced in May, with the double 
object of pleasing the Tories and of placing the com- 
promising Oxford in a dilemma. A violent quarrel 
ensued between the Ministers. Swift at length brouglit 
them together in Mrs. Masham's house, and used all bis 
efforts to reconcile them. He saw, however, that the 
quarrel was beyond all chance of reconciliation, and 
in June Oxford voted against some articles inserted in a 
Commercial Treaty with Spain by Bolingbroke. 

During this period of Tory activity, the Whigs had 
been far from idle. At the end of April, shortly after 
their success in carrying the resolution about the removal 
of the Pretender from Lorraine, the leaders held a 
meeting, at which it was settled that a member of the 
House of Hanover ought if possible to be resident in 
England at such a critical period. The rage of the 
Queen at this suggestion ; her refusal to see Schutz who, 
prompted by the Whigs, had demanded the Electoral 
Prince's writ, as Duke of Cam.bridge ; the issue of the 
writ ; the letters of the Electress Dowager and of the 
Elector to Anne, asking for the removal of the Pretender 
from Lorraine, and intimating the desirability of the 
presence of the Electoral Prince in England, followed by 
Anne's letter of May the 30th, which hastened the end of 
the Electress Dowager, and by the mission of Clarendon 
to prevent the possibility of the Electoral Prince setting 



TEE SUCCESSION QUESTION. 101 

out for England — are all well-known episodes in the 
dramatic history of these six months. Just before the 
prorogation of Parliament two important events took place. 
The Whigs had brought forward a motion for paying the 
Hanoverian troops the arrears said to be due to them 
for their services during the campaign, when the English 
army under Ormond declined to aid the Allies. After a 
consultation in Bolingbroke's office, the Tories succeeded 
in getting this motion laid aside. The Whigs made a 
great outcry, and asserted that the Tory connection with 
the Pretender was now proved, the Tories maintaining that 
the Succession had nothing to do with the affair, but that, 
" if gentlemen were pleased to put that construction upon 
it, they were at liberty, for them." Lockhart, however, says 
distinctly, that the result of the debate encouraged the 
Jacobites, and that, if Bolingbroke had followed up the 
blow, there was nothing too difficult to be accomplished. 
He goes on to say that there was a general impression 
that the restoration of James would shortly take place, 
and declares that Bolingbroke assured those Jacobites 
with whom he was intimate that a little more patience 
was necessary till he had purged the Army, got rid of 
Oxford, and placed the Government in sure hands. But 
on June the 27th, without any v/arning, the Queen and 
Council issued a Proclamation, offering a reward of 
£5,000 for the capture of the Pretender. The Jacobites 
were furious, finding, as Lockhart quaintly puts it, that 
" their wine was suddenly mixed with water." Boling- 
broke had some difficulty in soothing his followers. He 
pretended that Oxford, with the help of Shrewsbury, 
was the author of the proclamation, in order to annoy 
him : he told Gaultier that he dared not oppose 
it, as Oxford's friends had for the last two months 
declared that his (Bolingbroke's) attempt to restore 



102 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

the Pretender was the real cause of the quarrel between 
them. 

There is no doubt that Oxford wished at this time 
to discredit his colleague by fixing on him the stigma 
of Jacobitism, Bafiled for the moment by Bolingbroke's 
assent to the issue of the Proclamation, Oxford then 
attempted without success to lessen his intiuence and 
damage his reputation by assisting in getting up a 
charge of bribery against Arthur Moore. 

It is quite possible, too, that Bolingbroke hoped 
that the publication of the Proclamation, which Oxford 
expected, would quiet the alarmists, and would reveal to 
the Jacobites the extent of the Treasurer's iDsincerity. 
On July the 9th the session came to an end, the Queen 
in her Speech omitting all mention of the House of 
Hanover. 

The open attacks of the Whigs and the insidious op- 
position of Oxford had all told on Bolingbroke during 
this trying session. Rarely has a statesman had to con- 
tend with such difficulties. *' If my grooms did not live 
a happier life," he wrote to Swift, " than I have done 
this great while, I am sure they would quit my service." 

Since the opening of the year, in spite of his quarrel 
with Oxford, the lethargy of the Court, and the indifference 
of many of his party, Bolingbroke had devoted all his 
energies to carrying out his policy. He had vigorously 
attacked his opponents, he had also made some progress 
in placing Tories in all important posts in the State. 
Tories had been promoted to colonelcies, in the Army ; 
the Common Council of London had been placed in Tory 
hands. Time was all that Bolingbroke required for the 
complete triumph of his policy. During these months 
there was a general fear pervading the country, that the 
succession was in danger. The Whigs acted throughout 



TEE SUCCESSION QUESTION. 103 

with vig-our, the Tories with irresolution. A motion, 
'*That the Protestant Succession was in danger under the 
present Administration," was supported by the Hanoverian 
Tories. BoHngbroke had long seen the necessity of 
leaning on the Jacobite wing of his party in his attempt 
to make his position secure. The Schism Act had gained 
for him the full support of the Church ; by his nomina- 
tion of Clarendon as envoy to Hanover, to prevent the 
Electoral Prince from coming to England, he had in- 
dicated his superiority to Oxford in the royal councils ; 
and Oxford had shown in June, by his offer of resigna- 
tion — which was refused owing to the difficulty of ap- 
pointing a successor — that he recognised the supremacy 
of Bolingbroke in the Tory party. It was evident that, 
before long, Oxford would no longer be an obstacle in 
the way of his brilliant colleague's policy. 

Mrs. Masham was entirely in Bolingbroke's interest. 
Even the Duchess of Somerset, whose daughter had 
married Sir William Wyndham, ranged herself on the 
side of the opposition to the Treasurer. 

At last the long-hoped-for event took place. On July 
the 27th, Oxford was dismissed from his office. Anne's 
reasons were that he was "seldom to be understood, was 
untrustworthy, unpunctuai, ill-mannered, and disrespectful. 
The same day Bolingbroke entertained at dinner, at 
his house in Golden Square, the principal members of 
the Opposition, Stanhope, Pulteney, Craggs, and Walpole ; 
and Walpole himself admitted that this was done for the 
purpose of arranging the terms of a Coalition. The 
negotiations broke down on Bolingbroke's refusal to 
insist on the removal of the Pretender " to such a 
distance as Avould prevent his interference in the affairs 
of England." Bolingbroke, _who had assured the Whigs 
of his good wishes to the Protestant Succession, gave as 



104 EENBYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

a reason for his refusal his inability to procure the 
Queen's consent to such a measure. 

It is a great pity so little is known of the proceedings 
at this memorable dinner. Erasmus Lewis wrote to 
Swift on July 29th to tell him that "Mercurialis 
entertained Stanhope, Craggs, Pulteney, and Walpole. 
What if the Dragon (Harley) had done so ? " 

It was after this failure to effect a Coalition that 
Bolingbroke seems to have felt that he could only rely on 
the extreme members of his party whom he had gained 
over — and this is the view of Von Ranke — by simulating 
strong Jacobite proclivities. But he had little time to 
inaugurate any policy ; he was not appointed to succeed 
Harley, though he remained, till the Queen's death, 
practically Prime Minister, and during his short tenure 
of power sent Swift £1000 from the Exchequer. It is 
difficult to assign reasons for passing him over. Shrews- 
bury, who was regarded with great favour by Anne, and 
who was never a Tory, may have opposed his appointment. 
Probably the dislike with which Anne always regarded 
Bolingbroke, coupled with " that fatal irresolution 
inherent in the Stuart race," prevented her from placing 
at the head of affairs the ablest man of the day. It must 
also be remembered that Anne was as strongly opposed 
as Oxford to a partisan Government, and that she ncYer 
showed any sympathy with Bolingbroke's scheme for a 
united Tory Administration. The Treasury was to be 
put in Commission, with Sir William Wyndham at the 
head of it ; but the difficulty in choosing the other names 
was so great, that the Cabinet sat up till 2 a.m. on July 
28th, without being able to choose four Tories capable of 
undertaking the office. It was arranged that the Council 
should meet at Kensington on the 29th, but the violent 
altercations raging round her had shaken Anne's health. 



TEE SUCCESSION QUESTION. 105 

'^ She could not outlive it," she said, and the morning of 
the 29th found her too ill to do any business, and the 
meeting of the Council was postponed. Early on Friday 
the 30tli she was seized, probably with apoplexy, and was 
insensible for two hours. The members of the Cabinet, 
who were in constant consultation at the Cockpit, on 
hearing the alarming news, hurried at once to Kensington, 
where the Queen lay manifestly dying. In the Council- 
chamber they received the report of the physicians, 
which was most unfavourable. It was determined to 
abandon the idea of putting the Treasury in Com- 
mission, and Bolino^broke proposed that Shrewsbury 
should act as Treasurer. The pliysicians having 
reported that the Queen might be spoken to, Boling- 
broke, about one o'clock in the afternoon, told her of 
the recommendation of the- Council, and Anne placed 
the Treasurer's staff in Shrewsbury's hand. Those two 
advocates of compromise, Somerset and Argyle, who 
were still Privy Councillors, arrived at Kensington the 
same day, and were reinforced by many leading Whigs. 
The Privy Council sat all that day and the ensuing night. 
Measures were at once taken to secure the safety of 
Poi'tsmouth and the tranquillity of London, and it 
became evident that Shrewsbury's influence was entirely 
at the disposal of the Whigs, and would be used to carry 
out the Whig programme. 

At 7 o'clock on the morning of Sunday, August the 1st, 
Anne died. 

Bolingbroke asserted a few days later, that "his 
measures had been so well taken, that in six weeks 
matters would have been placed in such a condition, that 
he would have had nothing to fear." He had determined 
to fill all the posts in the new Government with members 
of the Jacobite section of the Tory party. Bromley, 



106 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

Mar, Atterbury, Harcourt, Ormond, Buckingham, and 
Wyndham were to have been the leading Ministers. 
And there is little doubt that, had he carried out the 
above scheme, such changes would have been effected in 
the country, that George would have been unable to carry 
on the Government except by means of a Tory Ministry. 
During the interval which elapsed between Oxford's 
dismissal and Anne's death, he evidently had little 
power. It is probable, however, that, had the Queen 
lived for a few weeks longer, his well-known abilities 
would soon have secured him the adhesion of the whole 
Tory party. As it turned out, Anne's delay in dismiss- 
ing Oxford had ruined Bolingbroke's chance of success. 
He himself says, when writing of Anne's unfortunate 
mistake in keeping Oxford in power : — 

" We saw onr danger, and many of us saw tlie true means of avoiding 
it; but, while the magic wand was in the same hands, this knowledge 
served only to increase our uneasiness, and, whether we would or no, 
we were forced with our eyes open to walk on towards the precipice." 

Then, Anne's dislike to the absolute supremacy of one 
party, combined with the dissensions within the Ministry 
over the appointment of Commissioners of the Treasury, 
kept matters in suspense, when decision was of vital 
importance. 

Shrewsbury had been Bolingbroke's last hope. If he 
had declared unmistakably for the Tories, all might yet 
have been well. That enigmatical statesman was, however, 
destined to finally overthrow all Bolingbroke's schemes. 
He had never indeed been a Tory like Argyle and 
Somerset, he was equally opposed to the Whig junto and 
the October Club, he was in favour of mixed governments, 
and of a policy of conciliation : consequently he had no 
sympathy with Bolingbroke's system of "Thorough." 



TUE SUCCESSION QUESTION, 107 

He had aided In the events of 1688, and his influence 
largely contributed to the fall of the Whigs in 1710. 
Though vain and fickle, he enjoyed among Englishmen of 
his day the character of disinterestedness. He had till 
lately acted on behalf of the Government in France and in 
Ireland. In 1714 he had .returned to London, and sided 
with Harley and the moderate Tories, rather than with 
Bolingbroke and the extremists. He had opposed 
several of the hitter's violent measures, but had also at 
times supported him. He had too, it appears, secured 
the Queen's confidence. Bolingbroke could not satisf} 
himself as to the real intentions of Shrewsbury. "How 
I stand with that man (Oxford) I know," he said a few 
days before the crisis, "but as to the other (Shrewsbury) 
I cannot tell." But when Anne lay dying, Bolingbroke, 
distracted by the divisions within the ranks of his own 
party, had no means of judging how far his own power of 
controlling events extended, and naturally turned towards 
the powerful and influential Shrewsbury, whom he had 
reason to believe would now support him. But the instinct 
of the King-maker was strong in Shrewsbury. For a 
second time he was destined to aid in overthrowing 
the hopes of the Stuarts. He had made up his mind 
that the Whig cause was the winning one, and at once 
decided, with a treachery unequalled even in those 
treacherous, or, more mildly, those opportunist days, to 
abandon his colleagues, and make his own position 
secure. He had his reward. When the list of the 
Regents was published after Anne's death, Shrewsbury's 
name alone of the Queen's last Ministry appeared. 
The vigour of Shrewsbury, Argyle, and Somerset — 
the middle party — backed by the strenuous support of 
the Whig chiefs, left no doubt that the Act of Settle- 
ment would be cairied out, and that George would 



108 BENBYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE, 

ascend the throne, which he beheved he owed to the 
exertions of the Whigs on his behalf. "The Earl 
of Oxford was removed on Tuesday, the Queen died 
on Sunday," wrote Bolingbroke to Swift ; " what a world 
this is, and how does Fortune banter us/' 



C 109 ) 



CHAPTEE Y. 

BOLINGBEOKE IN EXILE. 

1714-1725. 

Failure of the Schemes of Oxford and Bolingbroke— Accession of 
George I. — Attitude of the Council of Regency towards Boling- 
broke — His removal from his Secretaryship — Seizure of the papers 
of Strafford and Prior — Hostile attitude of Ministers — Alarm 
of Bolingbroke — His flight a fatal - mistake — His attainder — He 
enters the service of the Pretender — He acts loyally in the 
Jacobite cause — His amusing description of James' Council — 
James' character — Arrival of Ormond in Paris — Death of 
Louis XIV. — Failure of Jacobite rising of 1715 — Causes of the 
failure — Boliugbroke's dismissal from James' service — Berwick's 
testimony to liis ability — -Bolingbroke attempts to secure the 
reversal of his attainder — His Letter to Wyndham — His second 
marriage — Life at La Source — Letters to M. de Pouilly — Voltaire's 
visit to La Source — His Pardon passes the Great Seal, 1723 — 
Bolingbroke visits England - Fails to conciliate Walpole — Aids 
Townshend and Walpole in their diplomatic struggle against 
Carteret — Renewed endeavours to secure reversal of his at- 
tainder — Their success, 1725 — His return to England. 

The last days of the reign of Queen Anne proved fatal 
to the realisation of the schemes of both Oxford and 
Bolingbroke. The former had almost to the day of his 
loss of office pursued his trimming policy, and had in- 
trigued against his colleagues just as he had formerly 
intrigued against Grodolphin and Marlborough. But his 
efforts to check the advance of our modern system of 
Government by party were all in vain. The whole 
tendency of the time was, against the existence of mixed 



110 EENBYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

Ministries. His ideas on Cabinet Government proved, 
like Sir William Temple's scheme for the reorganisation 
of the Privy Council, incapable of being carried into 
effect. The bulk of the Whig and Tory parties looked 
for strong united Ministries, and were in no humour 
to listen to arauments in favour of Government with a 
divided Council, even though those arguments were urged 
by such distinguished politicians as Oxford, Somerset, and 
Shrewsbury. 

Bolingbroke's great scheme, too, faded into thin air. 
That scheme holds a unique position in English Parlia- 
mentary history. Never before nor since has a re- 
sponsible statesman endeavoured to put into execution so 
suddenly a plan which would have insured the con- 
tinuance of one party in power for an indefinite period. 
What Bolingbroke attempted to do openly in the interest 
of the Tories, Walpole in great measure effected by more 
insidious methods in the interest of the Whigs. But, 
while the latter only accomplished his object after some 
twenty years of steady labour, the former struggled to 
carry out his well-conceived plan within the short s])ace 
of four years. To place the " Tory system " on a firm 
foundation, and to render it superior to all the vicissitudes 
of Parliamentciry life, and proof against all the attacks from 
political opponents, had been the aim of Bolingbroke 
since 1710. When we consider that the realisation of his 
scheme meant the continued exclusion of the Whig 
statesmen from power, the disfranchisement of the Non- 
conformists, as well as their exclusion from all share in 
the m-unicipal and educational life of the country, and the 
continuance of the Church party and the landed gentry 
in the enjoyment, not only of political power, but also of 
all the privileges they had possessed before the Eevolution 
of 168S — we cannot but wonder that this policy, so bold, 



BOLINGBBOKE IN EXILE. Ill 

so clearly defined, and so deliberately conceived, has not 
attracted more attention. Tlie oft-repeated assertion, that 
all Bolingbroke's efforts were directed to the Restoration 
of the Stuarts, is as false historically as it is unfair to the 
memory of Bolingbroke himself. Towards the attainment 
of the great end he had in view, the firm establishment 
of Toryism, all his enerofies had been directed. That in 
carrying out a policy of such magnitude, including as it 
did the settlement of Europe after a long war, Boling- 
broke had to employ methods which would at the present 
day be reprobated, is doubtless true. He himself, in a 
well-known and striking passage, has endeavoured to 
justify the tortuous ways which he had followed during 
his Secretaryship : — 

" The ocean whicli environs us is an emblem of onr Government ; 
and the pilot and the minister are*in similar circumstances. It seldom 
liappens tljat either of them can steer a direct course, and they both 
arrive at their port by means which frequently seem to carry them from 
it ; but, as the work advances, the conduct of him who leads it on with 
real abilities clears up, the appearing inconsistencies are reconciled, 
and, when it is once consummated, the whole shows itself so uniform, 
so plain, and so natural, that every dabbler in politics will be apt to 
think he could have done the same." (Bolmghrolce^s Works, vol. i. 
pp. ?3, 24.) 

In spite of the numerous obstacles and difficulties which 
would have daunted most men, Bolingbroke kept the end 
of his policy clearly in view. This policy was far from 
being one of mere opportunism, dictated by the desire 
of mere power. That it was one of exclusion and pro- 
script'on is obvious ; that it aimed at " securing those 
who had been principal actors in the Administration against 
future events," and at establisliing the Tory party so firmly 
in power as to defy all accidents, is also true. Before 
criticising too harshly a policy, which with all its defects 
speaks volumes for the statesman who conceived and well- 



112 EENBY ST. JOBN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

nigh carried it out, it is only fair to compare it with the 
shilly-shallying attitude of Oxford, and to remember that 
Walpole's policy was in a great measure the same 
policy in the interest of the Whigs — having, moreover, 
on literature and religion a blighting and deadening 
effect, which we think would not have resulted from the 
policy of the Tory statesman. 

The death of Anne ruined Bollngbroke's career as a 
Tory statesman. He was now barely thirty-six years old, 
and had already established a reputation which few men 
have ever enjoyed. His Parliamentary life began in 
1701 ; it ended in 1714. During those thirteen years he 
had won for himself a foremost position in the great Tory 
party, had proved himself the ablest exponent living of 
Tory policy, had grappled successfully with the most 
complicated Treaty negotiations ever presented to an 
English statesman, and, but for an accident, would 
undoubtedly have continued to guide the destinies of 
England. This position had been gained partly by 
reason of those immense powers of application which so 
astonished Swift, partly by his intellectual superiority to 
the bulk of the Tory party, partly by his marvellous 
eloquence. Hi? speeches, none of which have come down 
to us, were looked back to in the days of Burke " as 
more priceless than the lost fragments of antiquity." 

On Anne's death Atterbury had proposed to proclaim 
James HI. at Charing Cross. But the activity of the 
Whigs in securing on the side of order all the resources 
of the Government, had destroyed all hope of a successful 
rlsino^ in favour of the Pretender. As Bolino^broke wrote 
to Strafford, " There never was yet so quiet a transition 
from one Government to another." Bollngbroke himself 
made a bold attempt to preserve his place in the new 
Government. It was quite uncertain how far George 



BOLINGBBOKE IN EXILE. 113 

would consider his true interest to lie in conciliatino" the 
Tories, who formed a large majority of the nation. 
Eolingbroke, therefore, wrote a letter to the Elector, 
promising to serve him with honour and fidelity. Till an 
answer was received, he had to submit to the authority of 
the Council of Regency, which had been nominated by 
George. This council was mainly composed of leading 
Whig nobles, and of High Churchmen like Nottingham 
and Anglesea, who had in the past opposed the policy of 
Oxford and Bolingbroke. Of the late Ministers, 
Shrewsbury alone was found nominated one of the 
Regents. " The Council of Regency," wrote Boling- 
broke to Sir William Wyndham, " which began to sit as 
soon as the Queen died, acted like a council of the Holy 
Office." They treated Bolingbroke with the greatest dis- 
respect. " I received no mercy from the Whigs, and I 
deserved none," was his confession later. At the end of 
August, George answered his letter by dismissing him from 
his Secretaryship, and appointing Townshend in his place. 
Though orders were sent to seize and seal up his papers, 
his Undersecretary, Thomas Hare, secured the most 
valuable, which were edited by Gilbert Parke in 1798. 
The arrival of George, on September the 18th, decided 
the fate of the Tories. The new King treated the late 
Ministers with studied insult. He attached himself 
unreservedly to the Whig party. And that party was 
determined to use the cry of " Danger to the Succession," 
in order to justify their vengeance on the Tories. 

" The art of the "Whigs," wrote Bolingbroke afterwards, " was to 
blend, as nndistinguishably as they could, all their party interests with 
those of the Succession ; and they made the same factious use of the 
supposed danger of it, as the Tories had endeavoured to make, some 
time before of the supposed danger of the Church." 

Instead of holding a neutral position above all parties, 

I 



114 SENEY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

George allowed the Whigs to make him a party Kmg, the 
leader of a small, well-organised, and vindictive faction. 
"The moderation of his temper was overborne by the 
violence of party, and his and the national interest 
sacrificed to the passions of a few." The immediate 
result of the conduct of the Whigs was, that the general 
disposition to Jacobitism increased daily among all ranks ; 
the ultimate result was, that the great Tory party became 
by the arts of their opponents associated with Jacobitism, 
and remained powerless in Parliament till the accession of 
George III. In the autumn the papers of Strafford and 
Prior were seized, and at the new elections a large Whig 
majority was returned. Parliament met on the 17th of 
•March, 1715, and Bolingbroke, who had lived at 
Bucklersbury since his dismissal, led the Opposition in 
the House of Lords. There, in the debate on the 
Address, Bolingbroke made his last speech in Parliament, 
in opposition to the insertion of a clause which implied 
that he and Oxford were traitors to the Protestant cause, 
a,nd had injured England's welfare by the Peace of 
Utrecht. In the House of Commons, Walpole openly 
declared that the Whig Ministers intended to punish the 
members of the late Government. On the evening of 
the 25th of March, Bolingbroke was at Drury Lane, 
where he bespoke a play for the next night. The same 
evening he left London in disguise, travelled to Dover, 
where he wrote a letter to Lord Lansdowne, and crossed 
over to Calais. It is said that, on his way to Paris, he met 
Peterborough, who still furious with him for concluding 
the Peace of Utrecht, passed him without a word. 

Bolingbroke seems to have taken this step in a sudden 
panic. He had just heard that Prior, then in the custody 
of a messenger, had been invited by Townshend to dinner. 
But there was nothing treasonable in Prior's correspond- 



BOLINGBBOKE IN EXILE. 115 

ence. In his letter to Lansdowne, which was published, 
Bolingbroke says : — 

" I had certain anrl repeated information from some who are in the 
secret of affairs, that a resolution was taken by those who have the 
power to execute it to pursue me to the scaffold. My blood was to be 
the cement of a new alliance. " 

Marlborough had supplied him with the information ; 
but, in his Letter to Sir William Wi/ndham, Bolingbroke 
denies that he was moved by Marlborough's artifices. 
He afterwards declared that he left England upon 
mature reflection, not wishing to owe his security to the 
Whimsical Tories, and resolved not to consult with 
Oxford — whom he abhorred — about their mutual de- 
fence, or to suffer with him, He could not have made 
a worse blunder. Oxford ,stood his ground, was im- 
peached, remained without trial in the Tower for two 
years, and then was publicly acquitted. Bolino-broke's 
flight was naturally construed to imply guilt. All it 
really implied was a want of moral fortitude, often the 
characteristic of impatient, mercurial natures like his, and 
quite compatible with the possession of a considerable 
amount of political courage. The report of Walpole's 
Committee of Secrecy, which was appointed, on Boling- 
broke's flight, to examine all documents relating to the 
negotiations about the Peace, conclusively proves that, 
had Bolingbroke remained in England, his enemies could 
not have charged him successfully with high treason. 
But his flight had ruined his career, and left him at the 
mercy of his enemies. In September, he was attainted 
of high treason, his property was confiscated, and he was 
condemned to death. His name was about the same 
time ordered to be struck from the roll of Peers. 

Henceforward Bolingbrpke was unable to re-enter 

I 2 



116 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

Parliamentary life. He was later, it is true, permitted 
to return to England, where he became the organiser of 
a powerful opposition to Walpole. Like Pulteney, Shel- 
burne, and Charles James Fox, the greater part of his life 
was spent in opposition. Politics, however, were far from 
being his only resource. His exile marks the beginning 
of a new period in his career, in which he combined a 
profound interest in politics with a devotion to literature 
and to philosophical and religious inquiry. 

For a short period subsequent to his arrival in Paris 
he allowed his thirst for power to lead him into throwing 
in his lot with the Pretender. It was the desperate act 
of a reckless man. In Paris he renewed his acquaintance 
with Torcy, and the friendships which he had formed 
durino- his visit to France in the autumn of 1712, with 
Madame de Tencin, and her sister, Madame de Ferriole. 
He had an interview with Lord Stair, the watchful English 
ambassador, who received him with great kindness. " I 
promised him," wrote Bolingbroke to Wyndham, "that 
I would enter into no Jacobite engagements, and I kept 
my word." But the Duke of Berwick, in his Memoirs, 
declares positively the very contrary. 

*' A son arrivee a Paris," says Berwick, " je le vis en 
secret, et il me confirma la bonne disposition des affaires 
en Angleterre," Mr. Macknight concludes he had not 
yet made up his mind as to what course he should follow, 
and that his conduct was often decided " on the impulse 
of the moment acting on a very susceptible and passion- 
ate nature." From Paris, he retired to St. Clair, on the 
left bank of the Rhone, near Vienne, where he met the 
Abbe de Tencin, and heard exaggerated reports of Tory 
discontent in England, and of the chances of successful 
risings in England and Scotland against the Whig 
Government. A letter from the Pretender decided him 



BOLINGBROKE IN EXILE. 117 

to join the Jacobites, and he had an interview with 
James at Commercy, in Lorraine, early in July, 1715. 
Till his dismissal from James' service, at the beginning 
of March, 1716, he worked loyally in the Jacobite cause. 

The history of the previous relations of the Tory 
ministers with James might have led him to know 
what to expect. In 1714, Bolingbroke had complained 
to D' Iberville that James was surrounded by untrust- 
worthy persons ; that everything he says or does was 
known ; that the name of every one he sees or corre- 
sponds with was instantly communicated to the Whigs. 
James had never taken any good advice. He had been 
strongly urged to communicate with England by means 
of Torcy alone, to leave Lorraine before the meeting of 
Parliament in 1714, to go perhaps to Venice where he 
could see his English partisans without suspicion, to give 
up his religion, or at least to simulate conversion. To 
his infinite credit, he declared in March, 1714, in verv 
explicit and straightforward language, that mider no 
circumstances would he surrender his religious beliefs, or 
pretend to change his religion for the sake of a crown. 
In other respects his actions were not so praiseworthy. 
He refused to leave Lorraine, and persisted in corre- 
sponding with his Scotch, and, what was worse, with his 
Irish part'sans, men who, no matter how zealous in his 
cause, had no idea of the meaning of the words judg- 
ment and discretion. Bolingbroke's new relations with 
the Jacobites served only to bring out in stronger relief 
the flaws in James' own character, and the weak points 
in the Jacobite organisation. The faithful jMiddleton, 
who had gone into exile with James II., and whose talents 
were considerable, had been practically driven from the 
Chevalier's service in December, 1713. 

Bolingbroke was to find that the same influences which 



118 HENBYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

had proved too powerful for Mlddleton would bring about 
his own dismissal. In his Letter to Sir William Wynd- 
ham he gives a full account of his motives in joining 
James, and a most amusing description of James' frame 
of mind, and of the condition of the Jacobite party in 
Paris. It is impossible to accept the reason he gives in 
that letter for joining James. Resentment at the Bill of 
Attainder drove him, he declares, into the Jacobite ranks. 
The Bill of Attainder was not passed till September. He 
had adopted the Jacobite cause in July. In his first 
interview w^ith James, the ^^hevalier talked to Bolingbroke 
" like a man who expected every moment to set out for 
England or Scotland, but who did not very well know for 
which." The truth was, his Scottish partisans were 
urging James to hasten his departure, without considering 
the advisability of waiting till the English Jacobites were 
prepared to rise. Berwick, an able soldier, had nominally 
the principal direction of James' affairs in France, but he 
had little power to influence James' decisions. Much 
against his own inclination, Bolingbroke accepted the seals 
from James, and arrived in Paris at the end of July. 
There he was introduced to his Jacobite coadjutors. 

•' I found a multitude of people at work, and every one doing what 
seemed good in Lis -own eyes; no subordination, no order, no con- 
cert. . . . The Jacobites had wrought one another up to look ou the 
success of tlie present designs as infallible. Care and hope sat on 
every busy Irish face. Those who could write and read had letters 
to show, and those who had not arrived at this pitch of erudition had 
their secrets to whisper. . . . Into such company was I fallen, for my 
sins." 

Bolingbroke saw at once that the success of a Jacobite 
insurrection depended on simultaneous risings in England 
and Scotland, on French aid in troops, arms, and money, 
on the presence of the Chevalier in Scotland when his flag 



BOLINGBBOKE IN EXILE. 110 

was unfurled, and generally on good management. Had 
James given Bolingbroke full power, had he trusted him 
implicitly, had he followed his and Berwick's advice, the 
Jacobite movement in Scotland might have had results 
very serious to the stability of George's throne. But 
unfortunately James did not place full confidence in 
either Bolingbroke or Berwick, his two ablest advisers. 

Bolingbroke's delineation of the character of James 
gives one a very clear explanation of the reasons of the 
failure of the rising of 1715 : — 

" His religion is not founded on the love of virtue and the detestation 
of vice. . . . The spring of his whole conduct is fear — fear of the 
horns of the devil and of the flames of hell. . . . He has all the 
superstition of a Capuchin ; but I found in him no tincture of the 
religion of a prince. ... I Lave heard the same description of his 
character made by tliose who knew him best ; and I conversed with 
very few among the Koman Catholics themselves who did not think 
him too much a Papist." Then he was far too sanguine. " He had 
been suffered to think that the party in England wanted him as much 
as he wanted thtm. There was no room to jjope for much compliance 
on the head of religion when he was in these seniiments, and when he 
thought the Tories too much advanced to have it in their power to 
retreat; and little dependence was at any time to be placed on the 
promises of a man capable of thinking his damnation attached to the 
observance, and his salvation to the breach, of these very promised." 

It would hardly be expected that so sanguine a Prince 
would be willing to listen to the calm counsels of ex- 
perienced men. Berwick had been in Spain during those 
important first seven months of 1714. He was strongly 
opposed to the expedition of 1715, unless careful arrange- 
ments were made for a rising in England. Actuated bv 
a mean jealousy of the great French marshal, James 
deliberately chose the vain Ormond as his adviser : a most 
fatal mistake, for he thus deprived himself of the help of 
the two men who alone could have assured him any 

reasonable chance of success. Ormond's unmcanino- 

o 



120 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

flight from England had ruined all chance of organising 
a rising in England. He was a man of very different 
calibre to his grandfather, the staunch cavalier of the 
reigns of Charles I. and 11. His flight and the death of 
Louis XIV. rendered, in Bolingbroke's opinion, the 
Pretender's expedition hopeless before it started. 

"Two events," wrote Bolingbroke later to Wyndham, "soon 
happened, one of whicli cast a damp on all we were doing, and the 
other rendered vain and fruitless all we had done. The first was the 
arrival of the Duke of Ormond in France, the other was the death of 
the King." 

Ormond had up to this time (August) been living in 
great style at Richmond, assuring the Jacobites abroad 
that he would remain in England ready to act. In order 
to get French aid, Bolingbroke had declared to the 
French Ministers that Ormond's appearance in the West 
of England would be the signal for 20,000 men to rise. 

" We had sounded the Duke's name high. His reputation, and the 
opinion of his power were great. The French began to believe that 
he was able to form and lead a party, tliat the troops would join 
him, that the nation would follow the signal whenever he drew the 
sword. . . . But when in the midst of all these briglit ideas they 
saw him arrive almost literally alone, when to excuse his coming I was 
obliged to tell them that lie could not stay, they sunk at once from 
tb.eir hopes; and that which generally happens happened in this case, 
because they had had too good an opinion of the cause, they began to 
form too bad a one. Before this time, if tbey had no friendship for 
the Tories, they had at least some consideration anrl esteem. After 
this, I saw nothing but compassion in the best of them, and contempt 
in the others." 

The flight of Ormond was followed shortly afterwards 
by the death of Louis XIV. As long as Louis lived, 
Bolingbroke had some hope of drawing France into open 
hostility to England. " My hopes sunk as he declined, 
and died when he expired. He was the best friend the 
Chevalier had." Bolingbroke, who like Berwick had 



BOLINGBBOKE IN EXILE. 121 

disapproved of the expedition from the first, wrote to 
Mar, its leader in Scotland, on September the 20th, 
pointing out that the probable result of a rising at such 
an unfortunate moment would be the ruin of the 
Pretender's cause for ever. At the same time, if the 
rising were persisted in, he would do his best. 

" But if our friends are not in a condition to wait, without submitting 
and giving up the cause entirely and for ever, desperate as I think tho 
attempt is, it must be made." 

But Bolin^broke's letter arrived too late. Mar, 
obe^ang orders transmitted to him by James without 
BolinD'broke's knowledof'e, had left London on the 2nd of 
August, the clans assembled in September, and the 
insurrection in Scotland burst out before a rising in 
England had been organised. Louis XIV. had died on 
the 1st of September, and the Begent Orleans, who was, 
moreover, prejudiced a(2i"ainst Bolingbroke, adopted a 
neutral attitude, and refused to give the Chevalier any 
French aid, or even to allow several ships in the Jacobite 
interest to sail from Havre. James himself arrived in 
Scotland only to find the insurrection practically over. 

The disastrous failure of the rising of 1715 was due 
to James' own folly. He refused to avail himself of 
Berwick's military experience or of Bolingbroke's states- 
manship ; he trusted in the incap ible Ormond, and the 
movement from which so much was expected was wrecked 
through divided counsels and want of good management. 
The rabble of St. Germain's accused Bolins^broke of beino- 
the cause of the disaster. The Chevalier returned to France 
at the end of February, 1716, and a few days later he 
very summarily dismissed Bolingbroke. James' anxietv 
to lay the blame on other shoulders, and the jealousy felt 
by Ormond and Mar of abilities superior to their own 



122 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

were the main reasons of the dismissal of the Tory 
statesman. Berwick bears high testimony to Boling- 
broke's services to James : — 

" I was, in fact, a witness," he wrote, " how Bolinghroke acted for 
King James whilst he managed his affairs, and I owe him the justice 
to say that he left nothing undone, of what he could do ; he moved 
heaven and earth to obtain supplies, but was. always put off by the 
Court of France." " And so poor Harry is turned out from being 
Secretary of State," wrote Lord Stair to Horace Walpole, " and tlie 
seals are given to Mar ; and they use poor Harry most unmercifully 
and call him knave and traitor, and God knows what. I believe all 
poor Harry's fault was that he could not play his part with a grave 
enough face ; he could not help laughing now and then at such kings 
and queens." 

Bolinghroke was thus sacrificed to the jealousy of the 
crowd of miserable adventurers who surrounded the 
Chevalier ; and Berwick, the only other able man in 
James' service, recognised the real merit of the English 
statesman. His connection with the Jacobites was ended, 
and he attempted through Lord Stair to make terms with 
the English Government, and to return to England. The 
news of his dismissal from the Pretender's service soon 
reached the Ministers, and it was not improbable that. In 
return foi- mformation about the strength and plans of the 
Jacobites, a pardon might be granted to the exiled states- 
man. In March, 1716, Stanhope the Secretary-of-State 
wrote to Stair, authorising him to give Bolinghroke " all 
suitable hope and encouragement." In an interview with 
the Ambassador, Bolinghroke engaged to act loyally in 
the services of George I. and of England, to use all his 
efforts to induce those Tories who had embraced the 
Pretender's cause to return to their duty, but refused to 
turn informer. *' To consent to betray private persons,'* 
he said, " or reveal secrets which may have been confided 
to me, would be to dishonour me for ever." Stair strongly 



BOLINGBBOKE IN EXILE. 123 

advised the Ministers to restore Bolino^broke, and Georo^e 
declared himself favourable to his restoration, but the 
animosity of the Whigs, increased perhaps by his honour- 
able refusal to damage his reputation by informing against 
individual Jacobites, resulted in a delay of some seven 
years. 

In England, his father, Sir Henry St. John, was in 1716 
created Baron of Battersea and Yiscount St. John, and 
his vi^ife was making vain attempts to regain her estate 
which had been confiscated wiien her husband was 
attainted. Though unable for state reasons to' grant her 
request, George I. was certainly very favourably inclined 
towards Bolingbroke, and allowed his wife to retain a 
portion of the confiscated property. Bolingbroke himself 
wrote in September, 1716,. a private letter to Wyndham, 
which was shown to Tovvnshend, and m which the exiled 
statesman clearly demonstrated that he was cured of all 
Jacobite predilections. While he was l^ept in suspense, 
he returned to his literary studies; at the close of 1716 
he wrote his Beflections on Exile, a close imitation 
of Seneca ; in 1717 he dictated his celebrated Letter 
to Sir William Wyndham, describing the state of the 
Tory party during the last four years of Anne's reign, 
and his connection with the Jacobites in 1715. His 
object in writing it was partly to throw ridicule on the 
Jacobite cause, from which he was now dissevered, partly 
to point out to the English Tories the folly and uselessness 
of an alliance with the Jacobites. The immediate cause 
of this letter was the publication of a Letter from Avignon 
(written evidently with the Pretender's sanction), which 
had lately appeared, containing a reassertion of the charges 
of treachery and incapacity against Bolingbroke. Though, 
as Bolingbroke himself says, a medley of false facts, false 
arguments, and false eloquence, it had considerable effect, 



124 EENBYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

and required an answer. And in bis overwhelming ex- 
posure of the Jacobites, in bis amusing description of 
the St. Germain's rabble, and in his telling account of the 
characteristics of James, Bolingbroke ably defended his 
own conduct, and carried the war into the enemy's camp. 
This letter, which as a literary composition has been pro- 
nounced by a competent judge to be almost faultless, is, 
on the whole, fairly trustworthy. His account of the 
motives which induced him to join the Pretender is perhaps 
the only portion in which it is obviously impossible to 
place any confidence. This valuable addition to the 
secret history of the time was not published till 1753. 

In 1717 Oxford was acquitted ; in the next year Lady 
Bolingbroke died, and Bucklersbury passed to the 
representatives of her younger sister. Eighteen months 
later, at Aix-la-Chapelle, Bolingbroke married a niece of 
Madame de Maintenon, the Marquise de Villette, whom 
he had known since 1717, both in Paris and at her 
mansion of Marcilly. From 1720 to 1723 he passed the 
o-reater part of his time on the small estate of La Source, 
which he had bought with some money he had made 
in the early days of the Great Mississippi Scheme. La 
Source was situated near Orleans, and took its name from 
the sudden rise of the Loiret in the grounds. Pope, in a 
letter to Bolingbroke, enclosed the following lines : — 

" What pleasing frenzy steals away my soul ? 

Through, thy blest shades, La Source, I seem to rove ; 
I see thy fountains fall, thy waters roll, 

And breathe tlie zephyrs that refresh thy grove ; 
I hear whatever can delight inspire, 
Yillette's soft voice and St. John's silver lyre.'* 

In this quiet retreat he devoted himself, as he had done 
at Bucklersbury, between the years 1708 and 1710, to 
historical and philosophical studies, which led him to 



BOLINGBEOKE IN EXILE. 125 

write the Letters to M. de Pouilhj. He corresponded 
with Swift, and in July, 1721, tried in vain to induce him 
to visit France. Among his visitors was Voltaire, who at 
the end of 1721 began a friendship with Bolingbroke 
which was to have important results on France and 
Europe. Voltaire was delighted with his visit. 

" I have found," he wrofe to a friend, " in this eminent Englishman 
all the learning of his country and all the politeness of ours. . . 
This man, who has been all his life immersed in pleasure and business, 
Las, however, found, time for learning everything, and retaining every- 
thing. He is as well acquainted with the liistory of the ancient 
Egyptians as with that of England. He knows Virgil as well as Milton. 
He loves the poetiy of England, France, and Italy ; but he loves them 
difierently, because he discerns perfectly the difference of their genius." 

Bolingbroke, however, was far from being contented 
with his retired life. He longed to be in England. He 
begged Orleans and Dubois to advocate his cause 
with the English Government ; he applied directly and 
frequently to the English Ministers. Polwarth and Stair 
interested themselves in his behalf, and Townshend and 
Carteret used their influence with the King. At last, 
early In 1723, his pardon passed the Great Seal, though 
the Act of Attainder still remained in force. 

In June he paid a short visit to London, meetino- 
Atterbury, who had just been banished, at Dover. That 
prelate, who was no longer on good terms with Boling- 
broke, is reported to have exclaimed, '* I am ex- 
changed ! " 

In England Walpole had risen on the ruins of Sunder- 
land's commercial policy, and in 1721 that famous 
Ministry which was to reconcile the English nation to 
the Hanoverian dynasty had taken office. Walpole and 
Townshend, though supreme in Parliament, found their 
position already imperilled by the influence of their 



126 EENBYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

colleague Carteret, whose knowledge of German, and 
sympathy with the Hanoverian policy seemed likely to 
make him a great favourite with George. It was impossible 
for the Ministry to contain both Walpole and Carteret. It_ 
appeared as though the Court with Carteret would be pitted 
agamst Walpole and the Parliament. Here, then, was a 
splendid field for Bolingbroke, whose object in returning 
to England whs to secure the reversal of the attainder, 
and his complete restoration to political life. It was soon 
evident to him that Carteret's star was waning, and that 
Walpole's ascendancy was assured. He therefore opened 
negotiations for an alliance between the Whigs and the 
Hanoverian Tories, promising that the latter, now weary 
of opposition, would heartily support the Government. 
He saw that in such a union, bringing with it reconciliation 
with Walpole, lay his only chance of procuring his com- 
plete restoration. But the Whigs had already declared 
plainly they would have nothing to do with a union with 
the Tories. They viewed with great displeasure Boling- 
broke's pardon. " I am sorry," wrote Townshend to 
Walpole in July, 1723, '' to find Lord Bolingbroke's affair 
continues to make ill blood among our friends." The 
attitude of the Whig party only confirmed the Ministers 
in their determination to refuse all offers of a Tory 
alliance, and Walpole promptly declined to consider 
Bolingbroke's overtures for a coalition, and told him he 
had done a most imprudent thing in negotiating to bring 
in a set of Tories when his salvation depended on a 
Whig Parliament. 

Though he had failed to attain the main object of his 
visit, Bolingbroke had the pleasure of seeing his old 
friends, Wyndhara and Harcourt, and of making some 
new ones in Lord Finch and the Earl of Berkeley, the 
former being the son of Lord Nottingham. Until his 



BOLINGBBOKE IN EXILE. 127 

attainder was reversed there was no reason for a lonjj 
stay in England, and in September he set out for Aix-la- 
Chapelle. His ill health was the ostensible object of this 
journey, but there is little doubt that he hoped to procure 
an interview with George I. at Herrenhausen and to 
plead his cause in person. Receiving no invitation to go 
to Hanover, he returned to Paris, and found the diplomatic 
struggle between Walpole and Carteret at its height. 
The position of Walpole was as yet far from being assured. 
He and Townshend were still engaged in combating the 
influence of Carteret. The latter had, in fact, staked 
his success in procuring a Dukedom for the father of a 
young French count, who was about to marry a daughter 
of Madame de Platen, sister to the King's mistress, the 
Countess of Darlington. Hitherto Carteret's influence 
in Paris had been great : the Regent and Dubois were his 
friends, Sir Luke Schaub, the English Ambassador, was 
his nominee. 

But on Bolinijbroke's arrival at Paris at the be<rinnino- 
of the winter of 1723-4 he found important changes had 
taken place. Dubois and Orleans were both dead. The 
Duke of Bourbon had become First Minister, and Horace 
\A^alpole, the nominee of Townshend and \Valpole, had 
practically superseded Schaub. It was clear that, if 
Carteret failed, his influence was gone. To Walpole it 
was all-important he should fail. Into this strugole, 
occurring, as it did, at a moment when the relations 
between England and France consequent on the death of 
Orleans were uncertain, Bolingbroke threw himself; he 
supported Walpole, and undertook to influence Bourbon 
to reject Carteret's demand. It was a matter of no little 
difficulty for Horace Walpole, who, however, made con- 
siderable use of Bolingbroke's information, to prevent 
the latter from taking ' the complete lead in the 



128 HBNBYST. JOHW, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

diplomatic iDtrigue. In this affair BoliDgbroke worked 
with all his old energy and as hard as in the days 
when he was Secretary of State. But, beyond irritating 
Carteret, his labours had no immediate reward, and after 
remaining some time at Paris, and consorting frequently 
with the French philosophers at the Entresol Club, 
established by the Abbe Alari, and supported by such men 
as Count d' Argenson and the Abbe Charles St. Pierre, he 
was in the summer of 172-4 again at La Source and still 
under the Act of Attainder. In May Lady Bolingbroke 
went to England for a second time, and strengthened her 
husband's chances by sending to the Duchess of Kendal 
a large bribe. Many friends such as the Abbe Alari, 
Finch, and more es})ecially Harcourt, exerted themselves 
on his behalf, but it was not till May, 1725, that a Bill 
passed enabling Bolingbroke to enjoy his family estates, 
and to inherit landed property in England. The other 
provisions of- the Act of Attainder remained in force, 
preventing him from sitting in either House of Parlia- 
ment and from holding any place of trust under the Crown. 
His exile was now over, and he was at liberty to return 
to England, and live on his property. He was, as he 
wrote somewhat sarcastically from London to Swift, — 

" tired with suspense, the only insupportable misfortune of life, and 
with nine years of autumnal promises and vernal excuses. . . . Here 
I am, then," he continued, " two-thirds restored, my person safe (unless 
I meet hereafter with harder treatment than even that of Sir Walter 
Raleigh), and my estate, with all the other property I have acquired 
or may acquire, secured to me. But the attainder is kept carefully and 
prudently in force, lest so corrupt a •meiuber should come again into 
the House of Lords, and his had leaven should som- that sweet, 
untainted mass." 



( 129 ) 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE OPPOSITION TO WALPOLE. 

1725-1742. 

BolingLroke settles at Dawley — State of politics on his return — Strong 
position of Walpole and Townshend — Character of Walpole's 
pohcy — The Whig plan of Government — Its good and bad points 
— Bulingbroke faiis to undermine Walpole's influence with 
George I. — He joins Pulteney in the management of The Craftsman 
— Character of Pulteney and of his brother — The various sections 
which opposed Walpole — Bolingl--roke unites them into a powerful 
Opposition — The Craftsman:;— Boliughrokes first contribution to 
The Craftsman — His Letters on the History of Athens — His Remarlcs 
on the History of England — No. 51 — The Norfolk Lanthorn — • 
Attacks on Walpole's foreign policy — The danger to Gibraltar — 
The Defences of Dunkirk — The Treaties of Seville and of Vienna 
— TAe Occasional Writer — The Excise Scheme — Popular clamour 
— The Scheme withdiawn — Bolingbroke's attitude towards it — • 
His Dissertation on Parties — The Election of 1734 — Whig majority 
— Bolingbroke's political connection with Pulteney ends — He 
leaves England, 1735 — His objects in forming the Opposition to 
Walpole — His comparative failure — Attitude of the discontented 
Whigs towards him after 1735 — Eeasons of Bolingbroke's retire- 
ment to France — The True Uce of Betirement and Study — Letters 
on History — The Spirit of Patriotism — His return to England in 
1738 — Norfolk House and Frederic, Prince of Wales — Bolingbroke 
wiiti'S his Idea of a Patriot Khuj — Growing unpopularity of 
Walpole — Secession of Tories from the House of Commons — Death 
of Wyndham, 1740 — Conduct of Tories and Jacobites, 1741 — Fall 
of Walpole, 1742 — Death of Bolingbroke's father — Whigs continue 
in power under Wilmington — Bolingbroke and the Tories " dished " 
by the Whigs — Bolingbroke declares he liad long ago estimated 
his Whig allies at their true value. 

On his return to England, Bolingbroke lived partly on an 
estate called Dawley, near Oxbridge, which he had bought 



130 HENBYST, JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

from liOrd Tankerville, partly in his house in Pall Mall. 
At Dawley he again became the centre of a brilliant 
literary society ; when in London, he threw himself 
heart and soul into the midst of one of the most 
exciting political struggles ever seen in this country. 
He had been absent from England some nine years. 
During those years the Whig party had experienced 
strange vicissitudes. The accession of George found the 
Whigs a united minority ; the suppression of the rebellion 
of 1715 strengthened their position incalculably. Till 
1745 the stigma of Jacobitism Liy on the Tories, and 
all the efforts of Bolingbroke failed to assure the King and 
people that a Tory Government would not lead to the 
subversion of the dynasty. Ministerial influence at 
elections, combined with Tory npathy and the Septennial 
Act, all helped to place the Whig party in an almost im- 
pregnable position, [n carrying out their policy, the exile 
of Bolingbroke had been of the utmost importance to the 
Whigs. He, and he alone, could have reconciled the great 
Tory party to the Hanoverian dynasty. His absence 
enabled the Whigs to establish firmly their power on a 
secure basis, and to practically govern England till 1770. 
Their immediate objects were to establish firmly^the Hano- 
verian dynasty on the throne, to destroy all chance of 
another Jacobite rebellion, and to advance the interests of 
the commercial classes. Peace with France became then the 
keystone of their policy, for no Jacobite rebellion had any 
chance of success without French aid. Hence the Treaty 
of Utrecht, followed by the Triple Alliance of 1717, were 
of enormous value to the Whig party. They were 
enabled to consolidate their own power, to increase the 
wealth and prosperity of all classes, and to reconcile 
the nation to the new dynasty so thoroughly, that, v/hen 
hostilities between Eno^land and France were renewed in 



THE OPPOSITION TO WALPOLE. 131 

the war of The Austrian Succession, the Jacobite Elsinir 
of '45 never for a moment endangered the throne of 
George IT. The Whig Schism of 1717, and the collapse 
of the South Sea Scheme in no way impaired the real 
strength of the Whig party ; and in 1725 Bollngbroke 
found the Tories reduced to complete powerlessness 
through the imputation of Jacobitism, and a united 
Whig Ministry in office under W^alpole and Townshend. 
He was under no oblig ttion whatever to Walpole, 
and seeing that many Whigs were hostile to him on 
personal grounds, he joined with Pulteney in 1726 
in a celebrated attack on the Whig Government. Till 
1735 Bolingbroke was the mainspring of a powerful Op- 
position to Walpole. To comprehend the real meanlno- 
of his political writings and the importance and objects 
of this Opposition, which he v/as mainly instrumental in 
forming, it is necessary to realise the position of Walpole, 
and the true tendency of his policy. 

It will be remembered that Bolingbroke's great aim 
during the four last years of Anne's troubled reign was to 
restore the Church and landed interest to the position 
they occupied in the Government of England before the 
Pievolutlon. He wished, in fact, to undo in great part 
the Revolution Settlement, and by means of a system of 
thorough party consolidation to establish Toryism on a 
firm basis. Oxford's love of compromise and his hatred 
of a ])olicy of " thorough," together with Anne's death, 
ruined Bolingbroke's plan. With the accession of 
George, the Revolution Settlement was assured, the 
Parliamentary triumphed over the Monarchical system, and 
it became the policy of the W^hlgs to prevent all chance 
of a return to the Tory principles of Anne's reign. Their 
Government, resting on the support of the Nonconformists 
and of the middle and commercial class — that '* moneyed 

K 2 



132 BENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOEE. 

interest," which was so unpopular with the country gentle- 
men — aimed at overthrowing the influence and power of 
the Church and landed interest. The immense effect of 
the Sacheverell episode on the elections of 1710 and 1713 
had not been forgotten. " The Church in Danger " was a 
cry which the Whigs had good reason to dread. Before 
Walpole had been many years in office, the blighting 
influence of the Whig oligarchy had fallen heavily 
on the Church. Convocation wPcS suppressed, and all 
ecclesiastical appointments were given to staunch Whigs. 
Walpole and his party were directly answerable for the 
lifeless Christianity which prevailed during two-thirds of 
the eighteenth century, for the absence of Church develop- 
ment and for the rapid deterioration in the whole tone of 
Churchmen, and that at a time when the increasing interest 
in. commercial pursuits, and the growth of population at 
home and in our colonies rendered the extension of Church 
oroanisation of paramount importance. By means of 
bribery and patronage, Walpole succeeded in carrying out 
a policy which, if openly advocated, would have been 
vehemently resisted. 

The overthrow of the exclusive dominion of the landed 
interest was effected by similar methods. The specious 
attack on the Church had struck a great blow at the 
political principles of the Tories ; party organisation, 
which Bolingbroke had so earnestly tried to establish, 
completed their overthrow, Walpole's policy through- 
out was to secure the Government of the country in 
the hands of a body of aristocratical statesmen, by 
means of " an extended system of Parliamentary in- 
fluence," and during his long tenure of power he suc- 
ceeded in this policy. The Cliurch and the landed 
interest — those two features of the old constitution which 
had under Bolingbroke so nearly regained their former 



THE OPPOSITION TO WALPOLE. 133 

predominance — were suppressed, and the whole govern- 
ment answerable to the Prime Minister, became vested in 
the hands of the Revolution families, who were, generally 
speaking, independent alike of the King and of the 
people. According to the Whig view, the Government of 
England should be in the hands of Parliament ; while 
Parliament, in which was collected all men of wealth, 
position, and intelligence, should be strong enough to resist 
the influence of the Crown and the violence of the people. 
The nation, it was thought, would readily acquiesce, seeing 
that the Whigs secured for them civil and religious liberty, 
fi^ee Parliamentary institutions, and commercial advantages, 
and at the same time defended them from the authority of 
the Crown, the ascendancy of the Church, and the exclusive 
policy of the country gentlemen. 

Such was the Whig 'plan of Government, ostensibly 
designed to make the will of the nation, as expressed in 
Parliament, supreme, but which, when put into execution, 
developed many defects of a startling description, defects 
which were boldly seized upon by a powerful Opposition 
led by Bolingbroke and Pulteney. The advantages of 
Parliamentary Government were not so obvious to men of 
Walpole's day as they perliaps are to modern statesmen. 
To secure the jMinistry from defeat, Walpole, by an 
extended system of corruption, organised a powerful 
Whig majority. His knowledge of the wants of the 
nation, and his usual deference to public opinion enabled 
him to avoid the introduction of unpopular measures. 
The result of his foresight and clever management 
was that he remained in power for twenty years, during 
which period he consolidated Parliamentary Government, 
fixed it on party lines, and made the Executive Go- 
vernment practically responsible to Parliament. But, 
even during his tenure of office, there were signs that, 



134 HENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

though the Whig oligarchy governed with consummate 
wisdom, with full knowledge of the needs and interests of 
the people, Parliament was ceasing to represent the 
nation, and was becoming an assembly of the nominees of 
the great Whig families. The shameless system of corrup- 
tion, the absence of high qualities in Walpole himself, 
the personal hatred of the Minister by the great body of 
Discontented Whigs, his policy of repression, exchision, 
and proscription, the growing indignation at his peace-at- 
any-price policy, the unpopularity of the Excise Scheme, 
all offered objects for attack, and eventually caused his 
fall. But, before he fell, he had succ( eded in establishing 
the Hanoverian dynasty firmly on the throne, he had given 
the nation a long period of peace, during which the 
material prosperity increased in a marvellous degree, he 
had seen the final triumph of the Parliamentary over the 
Monarchical system, and of the Revolution over the 
policy which Bolhigbroke attempted to carry out during 
Queen Anne's last years. 

Bolingbroke, it has been said, was under no obligation 
to Walpole. It would be true to say he had every reason 
to seize the first opportunity of revenging himself on a 
Minister, who had withheld his readmission to Parliament, 
and doomed him to lifelong exclusion from Parliamentary 
life. 

His first step w^as characteristic. With infinite trouble 
he succeeded in obtaining an interview with the King and 
tried to persuade him to dismiss Walpole. The interview 
was a failure ; George had no wish to get rid of a Minister 
who suited him in every w ay, in order to try constitutional 
experiments under Bolingbroke's guidance. Defeated in 
his first attempt to undermine the Minister, Bolingbroke 
turned to Leicester House, where the Prince of Wales 
lived at open enmity with his father. By means of 



TEE OPPOSITION TO W ALP OLE. 135 

Mrs. Howard, who afterwards became Lady Suffolk, he 
hoped to ingratiate himself at Leicester House, and at 
once began to weave plans for the formation of a 
"Patriotic " Ministry, with Chesterfield, who then stood 
high in the fiivour of the Prince. Again he was doomed 
to disappointment. George IL succeeded his father in 
June, 1727, and Walpole retired in ftivour of Sir Sp-encer 
Compton. But any hopes entertained by Bolingbroke 
were soon dispelled, and after an interval of a few days, 
Walpole was again firmly established in power, and 
Bolingbroke fell back on a scheme which he had already 
evolved, and which, though eventually successful in over- 
throwing Walpole, did not result in his own return to 
Parliamentary life. 

This scheme simply consisted of bringing together all 
the men who, from various causes, either regarded 
Walpole with hatred or disliked his policy from principle, 
and of uniting these scattered elements into one body. 
Bolingbroke's rare abilities, his knowledge of the world 
and of men rendered him peculiarly well fitted for this 
self-imposed task, and between the years 1728 and 1735 
he was largely instrumental in forming that famous Opposi- 
tion wliich, after sixteen years of persistent party warfare, 
succeeded in overthrowing the great Peace Minister. 
Walpole's jealousy of any possible rival, his system of 
party exclusiveness, and his government by patronage had 
alienated a large section of the Whigs, which included in 
their ranks William and Daniel Pulteney, and few years 
later Carteret. Of these men, William Pulteney was at that 
time the most distinguished. To the advantages of birth 
and VAcalth he had united a remarkable acquaintance 
with ancient and modern literature. He was an incisive 
writer of telling pamphlets ; he was a brilliant debater. 
No such orator was seen in the House of Commons 



136 EEJSBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

between the fall of Bolingbroke and the rise of Chatham. 
His brilliancy and versatility naturally gave him the 
position of leader of the Malcontent Whigs. And he 
had reasons for his discontent. Hitherto a consistent 
Whig, he had retired with Walpole in 1717, throwing up a 
valuable appointment. When Walpole returned to power, 
Pulteney, instead of receiving a seat in the Cabinet, was 
given a post in the household, and was offered a Peerage. 
It was not, however, till April, 1725, that Pulteney found 
himself unable to support Walpole any longer. From 
that moment he resolved to revenge himself on the 
Minister who had wronged him. In spite of his lack of 
statesmanlike qualities, and his want of judgment and of 
method, in spite of his restless and impetuous character, 
William Pulteney became one of the most prominent 
members of the Opposition to Walpole. His brother 
Daniel, whose energy and debating powers were also 
very considerable, brought to the assistance of the 
opponents of Walpole very useful, business-like qualities^ 
and an animosity to the Whig Minister, which roused all 
the activity of his nature. Personal dislike, then, and 
resentment at real or supposed wrongs had caused this 
revolt of the Discontented Wliigs. Opposed to tha 
Minister on almost every subject save that of the 
Succession was the large body of Constitutional or Hano- 
verian Tories, led by Sir William Wyndham, an upright 
man, with great oratorical gifts and a high reputation 
for statesmanship. About fifty Jacobites under Shipperi 
were ready to attack the Government on any subject, 
while the best known literary names were also found 
ranged in antagonism to the Minister. All the surviving 
members of the Scriblerus Club sided with Bolingbroke. 
and were reinforced by such men as Johnson and Fielding,* 
Thomson and Akenside. 



TEE OPPOSITION TO WALPOLR 137 

During his tenure of office, from 1710 to 1714, Boling- 
broke had displayed great presence of mind, extraordinary 
skill in unravelling the involved interests of the various 
European Powers, and a firmness and determination 
which, unfettered, would have saved the Tory party from 
their overthrow on Anne's death. He now showed an 
unexpected capacity for organisation, and there is no doubt 
that it was entirely to his genius, to his knowledge of 
political strategy, to his vast intellectual abilities, that 
the three sections of Jacobites, Hanoverian Tories, and 
Discontented Whigs were welded into that famous 
Coalition which, embracing as it did, most of the political 
and literary talent of the day, finally succeeded in over- 
throwing Walpole. In 1725 Bolingbroke and Pulteney 
agreed to unite. On December the 5th, 1726, appeared 
the first number of The Vraftsman, with Caleb d'Anvers 
of Gray's Inn as nominal editor, but which was really 
founded by Pultenev and w^as under his and Bolino-- 
broke's management. From December the 5th, 1726, to 
April the 17th, 1736, this weekly paper thundered against 
Walpole. 

In 1737 all the papers were published in a collected 
form in fourteen volumes. Of these, Volumes I. to VII. 
deal principally with England's connection with foreign 
countries between 1726 and April, 1731, when that Second 
Treaty of Vienna was signed, which weakened our close 
alliance with France, reconciled France and Spain, and 
partly led to the combined Bourbon attack, in 1733, upon 
the Emperor on the Rhine and in Italy. Volumes Vlll. 
to XIV. are mainly concerned with the domestic Govern- 
ment of Walpole between May, 1731 and April 17th, 
1736. This division is by no means absolutely accurate, 
as domestic policy is sometimes treated of in Vols. I. to 
VII., and foreign policy is at times criticised in Vols. 



138 EENBYST.JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

VIIT. to XIV. The papers usually attributed to Pul- 
teney are marked C ; those written by Bolingbroke are 
usually marked O. Of the latter the most important are 
published in Bolingbroke's Collected Works, and are fine 
specimens of the best political and controversial writing 
of the day. If we remember how at that time litera- 
ture was necessarily the handmaid to politics, we shall not 
feel any surprise at the extraordinary influence wielded 
by The Craftsman, and the importance attached even by 
Walpole to its utterances. 

The Conduct of the Allies had shown people the real 
meaning of the Spanish Succession War in its later stages ; 
The Craftsman played an equally important part in point- 
ing out to the nation the faults of VValpole's administration, 
and in forming a public opinion hostile to that Minister. 

On all points of home and foreign policy Walpole 
found himself attacked. In the First Vision of CamelicJc, 
written in The Craftsman early in 1727, Bolingbroke, 
in a most excellent specimen of satirical writing, attacks 
Walpole' s tyranny, corruption, and contempt for the 
Constitution. In a dream which he dreamed in Bagdad, 
Walpole is represented as — 

" a man dressed in a plain habif, with a purse of gold in Ms liand. He 
threw himself forward into the room in a bluff, rnfiianly manner, a 
smile or rather a sneer sat on his countenence. His face was bronzed 
over with a glare of confidence, an arch malignity leered in his eye. 
Nothing was so extraordinary as the effect of this person's appearance. 
They no sooner saw him, but they all turned their faces from the 
canopy, and fell prostrate before him. He trod over their backs with- 
out any ceremony, and marched directly up to the throne. He 023ened 
his purse of gold, which he took out in handfuls, and scattered amongst 
the assembly. Whilst the greater part were eng:iged in scrambling 
for these pieces, he seized, to my inexpressible surprise, without the 
least fear, upon the sacred parchment itself. He rumpled it rudely 
up and crammeil it into his pocket. Some of the people begun to 
murmur; he threw more gold, and tliey were pacified. No sooner 



TEE OPPOSITION TO WALPOLE. 139 

was the parchment taken, but in an instant I saw half the august 
assembly in chains. Nothing was heard through the whole divan but 
the noise of fetters and the clank of iron." 

Bolingbroke then described bow Walpole, as soon as 
bis purse was empty, lost all bis influence, how the sacred 
volume again assumed its place above the throne, how the 
throne itself was lightened, how every chain fell off, and 
bow the heart of the king was glad within him. 

In this paper Bolingbroke took up the position which 
he afterwards developed, namely that AValpole's system of 
Government was really a violation of the Constitution, 
and that the new power of Parliament bringing with it 
the loss of freedom at elections, and a fresh form of bribery 
in the shape of places and pensions, was a disastrous 
innovation. This special danger he pointed out in his 
Three Letters on the History of Athens, published in The 
Craftsman in 1732 and designed to prove that corruption 
destroyed the Athenian State. The example of Pericles 
is cited to show how the overgrown power, ambition, 
and corruption of one man brought ruin upon the most 
flourishing State in the universe. 

In his B,emarhs on the History of England, written 
in The Craftsman in 1730 and 1731, under the 
signature of Humphrey Oldcastle, he boldly attacked 
Walpole and his whole system of Government. These 
letters are an attempt to convey '' satire under the 
form of analogue," and in them Bolingbroke tries to 
make the history of past tim.es the counterpart of the 
present. Their popularity was due, not only to the 
brilliant style in which they w^ere written, but also to the 
skill with which Walpole and his Government were 
attacked. The characteristics of a bad Minister were 
exemplified in the cases of Yere, Suffolk, Wolsey, and 
Buckingham. Though worthless as contributions to 



UO EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBHOKE. 

history, these letters are well worthy of perusal as a 
remarkable indictment against Revolution principles as 
developed by Walpole, and are written with a brilliancy 
and eloquence rarely surpassed. In his concluding (the 
twenty-fourth) letter he defends his own conduct against 
the attacks of Ministerial \\riters. He declares that he 
never projected nor procured the disgrace of Harley, 
that he never joined the Jacobite cause till after his 
attainder, and that, while grateful' to George I., he was 
under no obligation to Walpole. 

Other writers in The Craftsman were hardly less 
vigorous. In No. 51, which appeared on June the 24th, 
1727, and wliich is a good illustration of the kind of 
attack to which Walpole was subjected, the marks of a 
bad Administration were declared to be \ first, the dread 
of examination and the constant endeavour of men in 
power to keep their actions in the dark ; secondly, the use 
of unwarrantable methods to influence the Members, or 
to impair the freedom of Senates or of popular assem- 
blies ; thirdly, the general encouragement of luxury ; 
fourthly, pretended plots and rebellions ; fifthly, forging 
or suborning evidence and packing juries ; sixthly, the 
conferring of principal offices of State on members of 
one family or tribe, and the lesser places on worthless 
wretches and tools of known incapacity ; lastly, the 
endeavour of Ministers to thrust the odium of their 
unpopular actions on their royal master. 

Nor were the attacks on Walpole confined to prose. 
On July the 20th, 1728, appeared a sarcastic poem, 
entitled. The Norfolk Lanthorn, of which these verses 
are appended : — 

" In the county of Norfolk, that Paradise land, 
Whose riches and power doth all Europe command, 
There stands a great House (and long may it stand), 
Which nobody can deny. 



TEE OPPOSITION TO WALPOLE. 141 

" And in this great House there is a great Hall, 
So spacious it is, and so sumptuous withal, 
It excells Master Wolsey's Hampton Court and Whitehall, 
Which nobody can deny. 

" To adorn this great Eoom both by day and by night, 
And convince all the world that the deeds of Sir Knight 
Stand in need of no darkness, there hangs a great Light, 
Which nobody can deny." 

While The Craftsman poured in invective after invective 
on all points of "Walpole's domestic policy, on the 
Septennial Act, standing armies, loss of liberty at 
elections, absolute Ministers, and favourites, the foreign 
policy of the Government did not escape. In consequence 
of a very ill-advised letter which George I. had some 
years previously sent .to the King of Spain, it was 
believed that the Ministers intended to restore Gibraltar 
to Spain. A storm of indignation was provoked, and a 
complete renunciation by Spain of any claim to Gibraltar 
was demanded. In March, April, and May of L727, this 
question was taken up in some very forcible papers which 
appeared in The Craftsman. England, it was asserted, 
had obtained Gibraltar in opcm war, and its cession by 
the Treaty of Utrecht had been again confirmed by the 
Quadruple Alliance. Any promise of restitution was 
only a Ministerial promise, and therefore Lot bindino-. 
Besides, it was the only valuable benefit we gained by the 
Spanish Succession War. Its importance to English 
trade was immense. On its possession depended our 
Italian and Turkish trade, and by means of it we were 
enabled to check the Algerine pirates and to compete 
with the Erench trade from Marseilles. Then, ao-ain, it 
had a great military value. The connection between the 
Erench and Spanish ports ^could be checked, the power of 
the Erench fleet was practically destroyed, and the trade 



142 HENBYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

between Cadiz and the West Indies was commanded. 
Therefore, concluded The Craftsman, the possession of 
Gibraltar is important, from a political no less than from 
a military point of view. 

ISTo one at the present day will deny the justice of these 
criticisms. But there was little proof that Walpole ever 
intended to give up G ibraltar. Less justifiable was another 
well-known attack on the Whig conduct of foreign 
affairs. A capital subject for invective was found in the 
non-fulfdment of the terms of the Peace of Utrecht with 
regard to the demolition of the harbour of Dunkirk, and 
numerous papers were written in The Craftsman on this 
matter between 1727 and 1731. In July, 1728, it even 
went so far as to assert that '* even the restitution of 
Gibraltar would be of much less fatal consequence on 
Great Britain than the reparation of Dunkirk." On 
October 14th, 1731, appeared a New Court Ballad, of 
which the third verse runs as follows : — 

" About Dunkirk and Grib 
Some tongues run very glib 
And offer us to lay a round sum, sum, sum, 
That Spain means this or that 
And France, the Lord knows what : 
But still shall old Caleb be dumb, dumb, dumb." 

In fact, all through the ten years in which The 
Craftsman appeared, numerous attacks were made on 
Walpole's Peace Policy, on his alienation from the 
Austrians by the Treaty of Seville in 1729, when Spain, 
disgusted at the evident faithlessness of the Emperor, 
Charles VI., in the matter of the Italian Duchies, found 
her best policy in alliance with England and France ; on 
his conclusion of the Second Treaty of Vienna in 1731 
with Spain and Austria, by which Treaty Charles VI, 
yielding to Walpole's bribe of the English guarantee of 



THE OPPOSITION TO WALPOLK 143 

the Pragmatic Sanction, agreed to withdraw all opposition 
to the claims of Spain on the Duchies ; and finally on his 
disregard of the growing power of the Bourbons, and his 
consequent neglect of the pressing needs of the mercantile 
interest. It was with rciference to the danger to Europe 
from Bourbon aggrandisement, that in March and April, 
1736, appeared four letters, attributed to Bolingbroke, in 
which the preliminaries of the final Peace of Vienna were 
forcibly criticised. The cession of Lorraine and Bar to 
France, and of the Tuscan ports to any member of the 
Bourbon House was, the writer contended, strongly to be 
deprecated. The French would thus secure a connection 
with Naples and an opening into the middle of Italy, 
the growth of Savoy would be checked, and England's 
trade endangered. This protest was unavailing ; England 
remained at peace during the Polish Succession War 
(1733-38), and by the Final Treaty of Vienna in 1738 
France secured Lorraine and Bar, Don Carlos obtained 
Naples, Sicily, and the Tuscan ports, and Austria, 
England's old ally, came out of the struggle considerably 
weakened. 

Till 1735 Bolingbroke never relaxed his efforts. He 
directed from outside all Wyndham's eloquent onslaughts 
in the House of Commons, and settled on the policy to be 
followed by the Parliamentary Opposition. He had violently 
attacked Walpole, not only in The Craftsman, but also 
in three papers, known as The Occasional Writer, which 
appeared independently of Ihe Craftsman, and which are 
remarkable for their violence, even in days when acrimonious 
and personal attacks were of common occurrence. At 
length the Opposition were convinced that, in the unpopu- 
larity of Walpole's Excise Scheme, they had found certain 
means of overthrowing the Ministry. The Craftsman 
became the more violent, as it was thought that Walpole's 



144 BENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

power was shaken. In No. 348 it inveighed against " the 
oppressions, insolences, and unjustifiable partialities of 
the Commissioners of Excise." It pointed out that the 
Excise system in Holland and Venice was less oppressive 
than it would be in England, while in No. 353 it 
compared the situation to that of 1627, when it 
asserted that there was a design on foot for enslaving 
the nation by means of Excises and a standing army. 
On this occasion The Craftsman, representing the 
ignorance of the mass of Englishmen in matters of 
political economy, found that its views received very con- 
siderable support. The members of the Government were 
not united on the question, and it was clear that the 
stability of the Ministry would be endangered if the 
scheme v^^as persevered with. Walpole bowed before the 
storm, withdrew the Excise Bill, and then took decided 
measures against his disaffected followers. Chesterfield, 
Stair, Cobham, and others were at once dismissed from 
their respective posts, and joined the ranks of the 
Opposition. On April the 28th, 1733, No. 356 of The 
Craftsman expressed the satisfaction of the Opposition at 
the withdrawal of the Excise Bill. "We have seen an 
insolent domineering Minister reduced, after all his 
defiances, to the wretched necessity of recanting his 
abusive reflections and giving up his infamous projects." 
This victory over Walpole, however, hardly redounds to 
the credit of Bolingbroke. He, England's First Free 
Trader, had been forced in 1713, in deference to the 
ignorant prejudices of his age, to withdraw his great 
Commercial Treaty with France. We find him now, 
instead of sympathising with Walpole's enlightened 
economical views, opposing the Excise Bill, not, it is true, 
on economic, but on |)olitical, grounds. In spite of some 
economic advantagei5 which, he allowed, would attend the 



TEE OPPOSITION TO WALPOLK 145 

measure, he advocated uncompromising opposition, on 
the ground that the scheme was a mere electioneering 
stratagem on the part of Walpole, who saw in the extension 
of the Excise system fresh opportunities for increasing the 
number of Whig revenue officers, placemen, and election 
agents. Hence, he argued, the liberties of the nation, 
which were already endangered by Walpole's tenure of 
office, would be still more imperilled were the Excise Bill 
to become law. 

It was now hoped that at the ensuing elections the voters 
would testify their sense of the conduct of the Whig 
Minister, and reject his candidates at the polling booths. 
Bolingbroke, therefore, redoubled his attacks on Walpole. 
In the autumn of 1733 he began in the pages of The 
Craftsman a series of nineteen letters entitled a Disser- 
tation on Parties. These letters, which when published 
in a collected form were dedicated to Walpole, contained 
an elaborate attack on that Minister's administration, and, 
written bet\veen October, 1733, and December, 1734, had 
by 1737 passed through two editions. The Dissertation 
on Parties remains the most complete indictment against 
Walpole's policy as well as one of the most brilliant of the 
political pamphlets of the eighteenth century. Boling- 
broke's object in these letters was twofold. He wished 
not only to weaken Walpole's position on the eve of the 
general election, but also to heal the differences between 
the various sections of the Opposition. Of these sections 
the Malcontent Whigs were the most unmanageable. It 
was in order to unite these Malcontent Whigs more 
firmly to the Tory and Jacobite sections of the Opposition 
that Bolingbroke in these letters vindicates the principles 
established at the Revolution Settlement, inveighs against 
the party system with its party prejudices, and contends 
that Walpole, to serve his own personal ends, had revived 

L 



146 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

bygone distinctions and obsolete party divisions. To the 
nation he appealed on behalf of the patriotic Opposition, 
which, he declared, was defending the true principles of 
the Revolution. 

The elections of 1734 were held amid the greatest 
excitement. In spite of all the efforts of Bolingbroke, 
Pulteney,^ and their followers, the nation, prosperous and as 
yet contented under the Whig Ministry,-declared unmis- 
takably for Walpole, and rejected definitely Bolingbroke's 
constitutional theories. The violent attacks on, and the 
elaborate Indictments of Walpole's policy had failed for 
the time to effect their object. A few years later, when 
the nation was discontented and less prosperous, Boling- 
broke's controversial writings contributed in great 
measure to the overthrow of the Whig Minister. For the 
present the Opposition had to acquiesce in the defeat of 
their great attempt to oust from power the established 
Government. The returns had shown that Walpole's 
influence in the country was still strong, and the nation, 
as Bolingbroke said, preferred, like a patient, to bear his 
" constitutional malady than to undergo the remedies 
prescribed by his physician." Walpole's majority was 
certainly diminished, but only to a small extent, and five 
years were yet to elapse before his Administration would 
be seriously threatened. 

The paper warfare, however, continued with the same 
violence. On May the 25tb, just after the elections, The 
Craftsman attacked the various methods taken by the 
favourites of power to secure their own election and that of 
their creatures. The writer boasts that the counties have 
gone against the Government, and that the Ministers owe 
their majority to the little boroughs. He then attacks the 
votes of Custom-house and Excise Officers, and hopes the 
members of Parliament will not be the tools of a desperate 



THE OPPOSITION TO WALPOLE. 14.7 

Minister. On June the 1st The Craftsman alluded to 
Walpole as a corrupt Minister, corrupting the people 
and thus destroying the effects of a good Constitution. 
The writer compares the state of England with that 
of the Roman Empire under Tiberius, and regrets that 
George 11. disdains to use his power. Though The 
Craftsman continued to thunder against Walpole till 
1737, Bolingbroke had for some time ceased to take a 
leading part in its management. 

In 1735 his political connection with Pulteney came 
to an end, and he retired, to France. The Opposition 
to Walpole continued, but Bolingbroke no longer led it. 
With his departure, the principles which had been the 
basis of the Coalition disappeared, and the struggle 
deteriorated into a mere contest between the W^higs 
out of office and the Whigs in office. 

In forming the celebrated Coalition of Discontented 
Whigs, Jacobites, and Tories, Bolingbroke had intended 
that it should ostensibly support the Bevolution principles 
against a Minister \^ ho, he asserted, had frequently violated 
those principles. A united Cabinet, the division of Parlia- 
ment into parties, the diminution of the King's power, the 
rise of the modern First Minister, were all, in Boling- 
broke's eyes, dangerous innovations. He asserted that 
the Revolution Settlement did not naturally lead to the 
im-potence of the King, nor to the development of Parlia- 
ment from a consulting, heterogeneous body, presided 
over by the King, into a powerful administrative body 
which, under the leadership of one man chosen by the 
majority, really governed. 

There was nothing in the old Whig traditions which 
called upon Pulteney and his followers to reject Bollng- 
broke's view of Walpole's system of Government. There 
was no reason why the Opposition should not be a " union 

L 2 



148 EENBT ST, JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

and coalition of parties meeting together on a national 
bottom." But, though Bolingbroke had formed out of a 
number of discontented sections, united merely by personal 
dislike of Walpole and by a desire to avenge personal 
grievances, a powerful Opposition with a valuable literary 
organ and definite coiistitutional watchwords, he never 
really secured the hearty support of the Malcontent 
Whigs. They were delighted to make use of his in- 
tellectual abilities, and of his extraordinary versatility ; 
they were perfectly willing to accept his definition of 
Constitutional Government ; they even consented to unite 
with the Jacobite section in attacking a common enemy ; 
but the ultimate aim of their policy differed widely from 
that of Bolingbroke. To Bolingbroke the opposition : — 

" is not an opposition only to a bad administration of public affaird, 
but to an admiir'stration that supports itself by means, establishes 
principles, introduces customs, repugnant to the constitution of our 
Government and destructive of all liberty" (vol. iv. 209). "You 
owe," he wrote to Lord Lyttelton in his letter On the Spirit of 
Patriotism, " to your country, to your honour, to your security, to the 
present and to future ages, that no endeavour of yours be wanting 
to repair the breach that is made, and is increasing daily in the 
Constitution." 

But Bolingbroke's effbrts to raise the opposition to 
Walpole into something higher than a mere struggle for 
place ended in failure. He had appealed principally to 
the large body of Discontented Whigs. They had rebelled 
against Walpole's personal authority, not against his 
system of Government. They were willing to use any 
weapons, any cries, to oust him from power, but they were 
in complete sympathy with his scheme of party Govern- 
ment. They had no reverence for the monarch, they 
lacked the historical spirit, they dreaded all display of 
Church feeling, they had no sympathy with popular 



TEE OPPOSITION TO W ALP OLE. 149 

aspirations. The Whigs were ever the same. Exclusive, 
and self-seeking, they were always willing to sacrifice all 
principles of political morality to secure the possession of 
power. In order to drive Walpole out of office, Pulteney 
and his friends were willing to make use of Bolingbroke's 
exertions, though they disagreed with his principles ; and 
even to make an alliance, essentially immoral, with the 
Jacobites. So, in 1783, the Whigs, under Fox, formed 
with North and the Tories the famous Coalition Ministry, 
and were rewarded for their disregard of political morality 
by practical exclusion from power for nearly fifty years. 

Bolingbroke had, it appears, taken the measure of his 
Whig supporters before 1735. In 1733 he had written 
to Pope : — 

" Disarmed, gagged, and -almost bound as I am, I shall continue in 
the drudgery of public business only so lun^ as the integrity and 
perseverance of the men who, with none of my disadvantages, are co- 
operating with me, make it reasonable to me to engage in it." 

In 1734, the Malcontent Whigs had shown unmis- 
takably that they were strongly opposed to Bolingbroke's 
proposed repeal of the Septennial Act. After the elections 
of that year, Pulteney and many of the Whigs began to 
hope that before long, either by making terms with Wal- 
pole or by overthrowing him, they would find themselves 
in office. In view of such a contingency, it would be well 
not to be trammelled with an alliance with Bolingbroke 
and the Tories, or indeed with the Jacobites. Accordingly, 
they dropped the principles of Patriotism, and they boke 
off their connection with Bolingbroke. 

"While the Minister was not hard pushed," Bolingbroke wrote in 
1736, "nor the prospect of succeeding to him near, they appeared to 
have but one end, the reformation of the Government. The destruction 
of the Minister was pursued Qnly as a preliminary, but of essential 
and indispeuBable necessity to that end. But, when his destruction 



150 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

seemed to approacli, tlie object of Ms succession interposed to tlie 
sight of many, and the reformation of the Government was no longer 
their point of view," 

Yarious reasons combined to make Bolingbroke's 
retirement to France advisable. It was probable that 
Walpole's attack on him, during the debate, in 1734, on 
the repeal of the Septennial Act, might lead to something 
more serious. His own expenditure at Dawley had been 
very great, and pecuniary difficulties rendered economy 
necessary. Pulteney and his followers had thought that 
liis " name and presence in England did hurt." In a 
letter to Marchmont in 1746, Bolingbroke said: "I did 
not leave England in '35 till some schemes that were 
then on the loom, though they never came into effect, 
made me one too many, even for my intimate friends." 
Prudence, economy, and dignity combined to bring about 
his Second Exile. 

During the ten years preceding 1735, his life in London 
and at Dawley was calculated to add enormously to his 
reputation as a Statesman and man of Letters. His 
organisation of the heterogeneous sections in one workable 
Opposition, his writings in The Craftsman, The Dissertation 
on Parties, and those three bitter invectives against 
Walpole, known as The Occasional Writer^ rendered the 
history of the struggle peculiarly interesting. At Dawley, 
he became the centre of a group of writers, who were 
largely influenced by his brilliant conversation. All this 
was now over, and Dawley was put up for sale. In 
France, Bolingbroke divided his time between his 
favourite residence at Chanteloup, in Touraine, and his 
hunting-lodge at Argeville. Here he wrote his letter 
On the True Use of Betirement and Study, " his letter On 
the Sfirit of Patriotism, and began his letters On the 
Study of History. 



THE OPPOSITION TO WALPOLE, 151 

The first of these was addressed to Lord Bathurst and 
is a short philosophical treatise after the manner of 
Seneca, in which he lays down that each person should 
be guided solely by his own reason. In this letter we see 
clearly the existence of the sceptical spirit with which he 
became later so thoroughly imbued. 

The Letters oiv History, eight in number, were written for 
the benefit of Lord Cornbury, and were begun in November, 
1735. The first five letters advocate the philosophical 
study of history, the object of which is, he declares, to 
improve men in virtue and wisdom, and to make them 
better men and better citizens. The credibility of early 
Greek history, of Jewish history, and of Scriptural 
chronology is the subject of a spirited attack, which is 
followed by eloquent and interesting observations on the 
advantages of historical* study. Li the last three letters is 
contained a sketch of European history from the beo-innino- 
of the sixteenth century to the death of Anne, and an 
elaborate defence of his own conduct in making the 
Treaty of Utrecht. In spite of many inaccuracies, these 
letters bear remarkable testimony to his mental activity 
and to his power of memory, being written without books 
and with the aid of a few notes only. Pope, on reading 
them, wrote to Swift (March 25, 1736) : "I have lately 
seen some writings of Lord B's since he went to France. 
Nothing can depress his genius ; whatever befalls him, he 
will still be the greatest man in the world, either in his 
own time, or with posterity." 

His essay on the Sjnrit of Patriotism, written in 1736, 
shortly after his departure from England, is instinct with 
rage and indignation at the failure of his own efforts, at 
the power of the governing faction, at the low aims and 
aspirations of a large portion of the people, at the conduct 
of the Malcontent Whigs, and finally at the inactivity of 



152 HENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

many of the Tories. The language throughout this very 
fine essay is striking. He attacks Walpole with bitter 
directness : — 

"There laave beeu monsters in other ages, and other countries, as 
well as ours. We will suppose a man impudent, rash, presumptuous, 
ungracious, insolent, and profligate, in speculation as well as practice. 
He can bribe, but he cannot seduce ; he can buy, but he cannot gain ; 
he can lie, but he cannot deceive." 

He then points out that Walpole's strength was derived 
partly from corruption, partly from the steady policy of 
the Whigs to enrich themselves while impoverishing the 
rsst of the nation, and : — 

•' by these and other means of establishing their dominion under the 
Government, and with the favour of a family who were foreigners 
and therefore might believe that they weie established on the throne 
by the good-will and strengtli of this party alone." 

The Malcontent Wings, the followers of Pulteney, 
receive no mercy at his hands. Their patriotism was 
simulated, their desire for liberty a pretence, they em- 
braced it faintly, they pursued it listlessly, " they were 
tired of it when they have much to hope, and give it up 
when they have nothing to fear." The members of his 
own party did not escape ; he accuses them of continuing 
sour, sullen, and inactive. 

•' They waited," he says, " like the Jews, for a Mes&iah that may 
never come. . . . While they waited, they were marked out like the 
Jews, a distinct race, hewers of wood and drawers of water, scarce 
members of the community, though born in the country." 

He expresses great surprise that, after the excitement 
connected with the Excise Scheme, the elections had not 
gone against the Government. In Parliament the 
opponents of the Scheme were, he says strenuously sup- 
ported for a time, but the indolence and inactivity of the 



THE OPPOSITION TO WALPOLE. 153 

members of the Opposition was such that all the excite- 
ment calmed down before the elections. Parliament itself, 
he continues, has engrossed all the executive power, and the 
nation submits to a tyranny which it would never suffer 
from a king. Bolingbroke despairs of the present genera- 
tion. There are some good men among them, but : — 

"they have been clogg:ed, or misled, or overborne by others; and, 
seduced by natural temper and inactivity, have taken to any excuse, 
or yielded to any pretence that favoured it." 

He consoles himself with the thoughts that the new 
generation which is coming on the stage will show more 
spirit and virtue, and that " we must want spirit as well as 
virtue to perish." We must not, however, be led to suppose 
that Bolingbroke's despair continued to depress him for 
any length of time. In June, 1738, he returned to England, 
where events had occurred which seemed likely to have im- 
portant results. Queen Caroline was dead, and she had 
been one of . Walpole's strongest supporters. The health of 
George II. was precarious; a series of bad seasons, together 
with a growing impatience at the peace policy of the 
Government had shaken Walpole's popularity. Pulteney 
and Carteret held aloof from Bolingbroke. They wished to 
purify and strengthen the Whig party, while Shippen and 
the Jacobites refused to give up the old-fashioned Tory- 
ism. Neither Pulteney's Whig followers nor the ordinary 
Tory country gentleman would believe that party dis- 
tinctions had ceased ; only the Tories, under Wyndham 
and the *' Boy Patriots " in whose ranks were to be found 
Pitt and Lyttelton, Chesterfield, and Polwarth, Cobham, 
and Grenville, still believed in Bolingbroke's doctrines. 

A centre was found for those who desired in the 
abohtion of party distinctions at Norfolk House in the 
person of Frederick, Prince of Wales. Round him 



154 HENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

gathered all Bolingbroke's followers. Frederick had 
already been struck by Bolingbroke's conversational powers. 
In order to establish himself still further in the favour of 
the Prince, whom he now regarded as the hope of the 
Opposition, and to detach him from the influence of those 
Whigs who followed Pulteney and Carteret, Bolingbroke 
wrote his Idea of a Patriot King. Before he again left 
England, in the spring of 1739, he had done much to pave 
the way for success in the future. The -affair of Jenkins' 
ear had roused the nation, which was now clamouring for 
war. It was evident that Walpole's fall was not far dis- 
tant. To Bolingbroke the times were of the profuundest 
interest ; his hopes seemed likely to be followed by the 
accession of " a coalition of parties meeting on a national 
bottom." Though in France, he kept up close relations 
with the Oppo.-ition. In 1739, in consequence of the con- 
vention with Spain, the Secession from the House of 
Commons took place, rendered famous on account of the 
eloquence of Wyndham's farewell speech, written, it was 
said, by Bolingbroke. That statesman, however, had 
disapproved df the Secession in the first instance, as 
Walpole was left at liberty to pursue his own measures. 
Secessions have never been successful in English history. 
Public opinion declared as strongly against this as it did 
ao-ainst the Whio^ Secession durint]^ the American struo^o-le 
for Independence. On October 4, 1739, war was declared 
against Spain, and the Opposition again appeared in their 
places. 

In 1740, the death of Sir William Wyndham, the skilful 
leader of the Tories, was a great blow to the Opposition, 
from which, in fact, it did not recover during Bolingbroke's 
life. " He was," as Lyttelton said in a letter to BoUng- 
broke, " the centre of union of the best men of all parties." 
As long as he was in Parliament, he was able to keep 



TIJE OPPOSITION TO WALPOLK 155 

the Tories and Malcontent Whisks in some sort of order. 
Ever since 1735, there had been dailv increasing: sig^ns 
that the Coahtion was about to break up. Wyndham's 
presence alone prevented the carelessness, inactivity, and 
languor of the great part of the Opposition from ruining 
the attempts that were being made to effect a reformation 
of the Government. Lyttelton thought that, if the Prince 
of Wales could keep the Hanoverian Tories united under 
him with the uncorrupt part of the Whigs, the Coalition 
might be saved from impending destruction, and its 
objects steaddy, regularly, and warmly pursued. To 
expect that Frederick, Prince of Wales, could play any 
such part was of course out of the question. And the 
disastrous effect of the death of Wyndham was at once 
seen. In the very moment of victory, the various sections 
of that Coalition, which had been formed with such labour 
by Bolingbroke, showed signs of revolt. Tiie schism 
among the Discontented Whigs, in 1735, had filled 
him with despair ; the conduct of the Tory and Jacobite 
sections, in 1741, elicited from him a burst of indignation. 
On February 13, Sandys had moved in an address 
to the King the dismissal of Walpole. Some of the 
Tories voted against the motion, and among them was 
Bolingbroke's friend. Lord Cornbury ; some did not vote 
at all, and with them was Shippen, with thirty-four 
Jacobites. " The conduct of the Tories," wrote Bolin«r- 
broke to Marchmont, " is silly, infamous, and void of any 
colour of excuse." lie was particularly angry with the 
honest, incorruptible Shippen, who seems to have disliked 
the Coalition against Walpole, to whom he w^as under an 
obligation. Bolingbroke goes on to regret the death of 
Wyndham : — 

"He did not expect any more than I liave long done to render tin's 
generation of Tories of much good use to this country. . . . But still, 



156 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

if he had lived, he would have hindered theie stranger creatures — 1 
can hardly call them men — ^from doing all the mischief they have 
lately done, and will, perhaps, continue to do." 

In February 1742, Walpoie fell, and in April, Boling- 
broke's father, the old Lord St. John, died. On 
Bolingbroke's arrival in London from France, he found 
that all his hopes of a Coalition Ministry were dashed to 
the ground. The spirit of exclusiveness and selfishness lay 
heavy on the Whigs, and Pulteney and Carteret, acting 
as Bolingbroke had foreseen, completely threw over their 
Tory allies, and made a compromise with the subordinate 
members of Walpole's Ministry. 

"I am sorry," Bolingbroke had written to Marchmont on April 
6th, 1742, " to liml that the forebodings of my mind are likely to be 
verified. I apprehended all that I see happen. How could I not? 
Long before 1 left Britain it was plain that some persons meant that 
the Opposition should serve as their scaffolding, nothing else ; and 
whenever they had a glimpse of hope that they might rise to power 
without it, they showed the greatest readiness to demolish it. 
Nothing, therefore, has happened which was not foreseen." 

He might have watched events with more equanimity 
had he been able to dip into the future, and see how 
Pulteney 's triumph was to be followed almost immediately 
by the collapse of his influence. 



( i57 ) 



CHAPTER VII. 

BOLINGBEOKE'S LATER YEARS. 

1742-1751. 

His return to Ar2;eville — His pavilion— Again in England — Politics 
in 17-43 — Wilmington Prime IMinister — Influence of Carteret — 
Carteret's foreign policy — Bolingbroke's opposition to liim — 
Return to Argeville— Battle of Dettingen — At Aix-la-Chapelle — 
In England — The Manor House at Battersea becomes a political 
centre — Opposition cff the Pelhams to Carteret — Fall of Carteret 
— Pelham's War Administration not successful — The Jacobite 
Rebe lion — The Three Days Revolution— Defeat of the King — 
Bolingbroke and the Rebellion of '45 — His weariness of the 
world — Some Reflections on the Present State of the Nation — 
His attack on Pope — Defence of Pope by Warburton — Death of 
Lady Bolingbroke — Bolingbroke's last days — His death. 

In August, 1742, Bolingbroke returned to Argeville, 
having had a narrow escape of capture by three Spanish 
privateers at anchor near Calais. In order to pursue 
his studies, free from interruption, he had fitted a small 
pavilion in the garden of the abbey of Sens. It was at 
this time that he wrote many of the works for which he is 
so famous. 

At the beginning of 1743, he was again in England, 
and stayed partly at his house at Battersea, then in- 
habited by Lord Marchmont, partly with Pope at Twicken- 
ham. He threw himself with all his old keenness into the 
plans of the Opposition. Lord Wilmington was nomin- 
ally Prime Minister, but Carteret was virtually head of 



158 HENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

the Government. On questions of home and foreign 
policy, Carteret and Bolingbroke were diametrically 
opposed. Carteret had always, even when leading the 
Opposition to Walpole in the House of Lords, confessed 
to Bolingbroke that he intended to carry on the okl 
system, though Bolingbroke afterwards bitterly coui- 
plained of his having abandoned, when in office, the prin- 
ciples he held when in Opposition. 

" The principles of the late Opposition," he had written toPolwarth, 
" were the principles of very few of the opposers ; and your Lordship 
and I, and some few, very few besides, were the bubbles of men 
whose advantage lies in having worse hearts; for I am not Immble 
enong'i to allow them better heads." 

Carteret's foreign pol'.cy was designated by Boling- 
broke as madness. Our war with Spain had broken out 
in 1739. The Emperor, Charles VI., died in 1740, and 
the invasion of Silesia took place, followed by the in- 
vasion of the Austrian dominions by the French, in the 
interests of Bavaria. Carteret's policy was to reconcile 
Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa, to withdraw 
the Elector of Bavaria (the Emperor, Charles VIL) from 
the French alliance, and to secure the co-operation of the 
Dutch. In other words, he wished to form a united 
Germany, capable of resisting French aggression, by 
means of a revival of the Grand Alliance. 

Bolingbroke had always allowed that, at the Peace of 
1713, France was left too powerful. Though Carteret's 
policy was in a manner to complete the work left un- 
tinished at Utrecht, the Tories had always consistently 
opposed the system of Continental alliances, and Boling- 
broke had ever entertained feelings of hostility to the 
Hapsburgs. It was natural that he should look with 
great aversion on a scheme of policy which would lead 
to the extension of the Hapsburg ascendancy. 



BOLINGBBOKE'S LATEB YEABS. 159 

He was now anxious, if possible, to form a coalition of 
the Pelhams and the Tories against Carteret. But the 
principal supporters of his views had been removed from 
the House of Commons. Wyndham had died in 1740 ; 
Polwarth had, on the death of his father, become the third 
Earl of March mont, and, not being an elected Scottish 
Peer, had no seat in the House of Lords. 

" What a star has our Minister," Bolingbroke had 
written at the time, " AVyndham dead, Marchmont dis- 
abled ! the loss of Marchmont and Wyndham to our 
country." In June, 1743, he left England, and returned 
to France. 

After a month at Argeville, where he heard the news of 
the battle of Dettingen, won by his old friend Lord Stair, 
he was ordered by his physicians to spend the month of 
September at Aix-la-Chapelle on account of his gout and 
rheumatism. From Aix-la-Chapelle he corresponded 
frequently with Marchmont on the political outlook in 
England. In October, he returned to England, pavtly to 
put his private affairs on a more satisfactory footing, 
partly to try and bring about a coalition. Wilmington 
had died in July, and Henry Pelham had become Prime 
Minister. During the next year there was little chance 
of putting the scheme of a coalition into execution, and 
Bolingbroke spent the remainder of 1743 and the early 
part of 1744 at Battersea with his friend Marchmont. 
Once again, in June, 1744, he crossed the Channel, but 
owing to the critical outlook on the Continent, he speedily 
returned, and settled for the remainder of his life in tlie 
old Manor House at Battersea. There he and Lady 
Bolingbroke received many of the rising young politicians, 
who were delighted to listen to the conversation of the 
statesman who had negotiated the Peace of Utrecht. 
Thither came, in addition to Marchmont and old Lord 



160 EENEY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

Stair, Lyttelton, Secretary to the Prince of Wales, 
Chesterfield, Murray, the Solicitor-General, and William 
Pitt. 

The political situation in the autumn of 1744 was 
full of interest to Bolingbroke and his friends the "Boy 
Patriots," who had hitherto coalesced with no party. 
In June, 1744, the relations between Carteret and the 
Pelhams had become very strained. A crisis was evidently 
at hand, and the possibility of a Coalition Government 
was ever in Bolingbroke's mind. It was not, however, till 
November that Carteret's removal fi om office was demanded 
by the Pelhams. In spite of his vigorous intellect, his 
knowledge of European politics, his steady purpose and 
his patriotism, Carteret, now Lord Granville, was driven 
from active political life by the great Revolution families, 
who had by this time firmly riveted their yoke on 
the Crown. The selfish and bureaucratic Whigs had 
trampled over the more inrlependent section of the 
party represented by Carteret. One result of the struggle 
was the reconstitution of the Ministry, and what was 
known as the " Broad Bottom Administration " was 
formed, which included many of Bolingbroke's friends like 
Chesterfield. During 1745 the Pelhams carried on the 
war with little success, while at home they were regarded 
by the King with displeasure. In the autumn of the year, 
in order to strengthen themselves, they proposed to George 
that Pitt, who was exceedingly distasteful to him, should 
be made Secretary-at-War. Tlie King's refusal was 
followed by the resignation of the Foreign Secretaries, 
Newcastle and Harrington, in February, 1746, in the 
midst of the Jacobite rebellion. Then took place what is 
known as the Three Days Eevolution. George placed the 
Foreign Department in the hands of Granville, and made 
Pulteney, now Lord Bath, First Lord of the Treasury. 



BOLINGBBOKE'S LATEB YEABS, 161 

They were not supported by any Tories, nor did they 
receive any sympathy in either House of Parliament- 
The remaining Ministers resigned, and George was 
forced to yield. The victory of the Pelhams was complete, 
and the Whig oligarchy ruled supreme till the accession of 
George HI. Bolingbroke himself had the supreme satis- 
faction of seeing the failure of both Bath and Granville, 
the former being First Lord for one day, the latter Secretary 
of State for less than four days. 

He had regarded the Jacobite movement of '45 with 
indifference, and advised Marchmont to do the same. 
Like the majority of the nation, he did not interest himself 
in the slightest degree in the cause of Charles Edward or 
of George II. 

"I expect," he wrote k> Marchmont, "no good news, and I am 
therefore contented to have none. I wait with much resignation to 
know to what lion's paw we are to fall." 

His life, however, was drawing to a close, and old 
age, as it crept on, brought with it the sad experiences 
which are the lot of those who live long. In May, 1744, 
he had stood by the deathbed of Pope ; in October, 1745, 
the unhappy Swift breathed his last in Ireland. Visitors 
ceased to come as frequently as in former days, and Bolino-- 
broke felt keenly their absence. He was especially angry 
at not being treated by Pitt with more deference. In 
July, 1746, he wrote to Marchmont : — 

'' It is time I should retire for good and all from the world, and 
from the very approaches to business, ne -peccem. 1 j)ut it into prose, 
^ad extremum redundus,' If I have showed too much zeal — for I own 
that this even in a good cause may be pushed into some degree of 
ridicule — I can show as much indifference ; and surely it is time for 
me to show the latter, since I am cotne to the even of a tempestuous 
day, and see in the whole extent of our horizon no signs that 
to-morrow will be fairer." 

M 



162 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

In spite of these assertions, he continued till his death 
to watch with interest the war on the Continent. The 
Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, concluded in 1748, drew from 
him Some Reflections on the Present State of the Nation. 
Though unfinished, it is important as containing what 
were probably his real views on the course of our foreign 
policy from the accession of Anne. In it is seen clearly 
his animosity towards the Hapsburgs. He declares that 
in both the Spanish and Austrian Succession "Wars the 
Court of Vienna sacrificed nothing, but that our sacrifices 
were enormous. Maria Theresa, he says — 



"seemed to make war just as it suited her convenience, to save all tlie 
expense she could in the Netherlands, to plunder all she could in 
Italy, and to make us pay the whole immense subsidies which we 



gave her for both." 



After having blamed the part taken by England in 
" this strange war," he draws an alarming picture of 
England's condition, comparing it to the state of France 
under Henry IV., at the time of the Peace of Vervins : — 

" Are we not as near to bankruptcy as the French nation was at 
that time, and much more so than they are at Ihis time? May not 
confusion follow it here as well as there ? And, finally, may not the 
joint ambition of two branches of Bourbon in some future conjunction 
produce effects as fatal, and much more, to us, if we continue in our 
present state of impotence till such a conjuncture happens, as was to 
be feared by Fj-ance at the time we speak of from the joint ambition 
of two branches of Austria ? " 

The load of debt under which England then laboured 
caused him much concern, and he feared that, '* if we do 
not pay our debts, we must sink under them." Though 
he allows that trade gives us wealth, he cannot bring 
himself to reo^ard the merchant class with favour : " the 
landed men are the true owners of our political vessels ; 
the moneyed men as such are no more than passengers," 



BOLINGBBOKE'S LATEB YEABS. 163 

The gloomy views he took of the condition of England 
sound curiously to those who remember that some twelve 
years later, under the influence of Pitt, victories, which 
recalled the triumphs of Marlborough, resulted in the 
foundation of the British Empire. 

In the same year, under the editorship of David 
Mallet, the Under Secretary to the Prince of Wales, and 
described by Dr. Johnson as the only native of Scotland 
of whom Scotchmen were not proud, Bolingbroke gave to 
the world a volume containing the Spirit of Patriotism, 
the Idea of a Patriot King, and the Account of the State 
of Parties at the Accession of George I. In the preface 
appeared a violent attack on Pope for having secretly had 
fifteen hundred copies of the Patriot King printed from 
the manuscript lent him by Bolingbroke, with the result 
tliat a portion of that"essay had already appeared in the 
pages of a maiiazine. Pope's old literary ally, War- 
burton, defended with spirit the memory of his dead 
friend. The public declared unmistakably for War- 
burton. Pope had certainly acted Jbadly, but he had. 
been dead five years, and had written warmly in praise of 
Bolingbroke in the Essay on Man. Bolingbroke found 
that, as Cliesterfield told him, he had succeeded in unitino- 
against himself Whigs, Tories, Trimmers, and Jacobites. 
Mr. Stebbing, however, in his Essay on Henry St. John, 
thinks that Bolingbroke's rage is to be attributed rather 
to Pope's choice of Warburton as his literary executor, 
than to his discovery of Pope's breach of faith. 

In March, 1750, Lady Bolingbroke died, after a lono- 
illness. To Bolingbroke the loss of liis wife, to whom he 
was greatly attached and whose companionship had been 
a solace to him in his ever-increasing infirmities, was very 
severe. She had mingled in the society of Louis XIV. 's 
court, and seems to have been a very pleasant, intelligent 

M 2 



164 EENBYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE, 

FrenchwoTmari, with all the grace and savoir-faire of the 
Faubourg St. Germain. On her death her relatives 
disputed the validity of her marriage, and claimed her 
property. After a long lawsuit the Parliament of Paris 
reversed the decision of the Lower Court, which had been 
given in favour of the relatives All Paris was delighted 
at the result, and the President of the Grande Chambre 
expressed sentiments of admiration for the late dis- 
tinguished statesman ; for Bolingbroke had died a few 
weeks before the decision. 

In the autumn of 1750 he had made his will. Early 
in December, 1751, he became convinced his end was near, 
and took leave of Chesterfield \Aith the words : — *' God, 
who placed me here, will do what He pleases with me here- 
after ; and He knows best wliat to do. May He bless you." 
A few days later, on December the 12th, after a short 
period of severe suffering, overcome with the consciousness 
of continued failure ever since the conclusion of the 
Peace of Utrecht, but instinct to the last with energy, 
Henry St. John, a man endowed with the most varied and 
glorious gifts, passed away. Six days later he was buried 
in the same vault as his second wife in Battersea Church. 

The St. Johns were a long-lived race. Sir Walter had 
died at the ripe age of eighty-seven ; Lord St. John lived 
till he w^as over ninety, and Bolingbroke had, when he 
died, passed his seventy-third birthday. Born during the 
reign of Charles H., a Member of Parliament in the reign 
of William III., and living into the second half of the 
eighteenth century, it may well be said of him that " he 
seems to link together the twilight age of the Stuarts 
and the grey dawn of visibly modern times." 



( 165 ) 



CHAPTER YIII. 

EEVIEW OF BOLINGBROKE'S CAREER AND 
CHARACTER. 

Always struggling against an adverse fate — The death of Anne — The 
fall of Walpole — His failure to secure the reversal of his 
attainder — His transcendent abilities — His writings — Ilhistrations 
— His correspondence — Eloquence — His general intellectual 
qualities — His power of application — Views taken by Mr Lecky 
and Mr. Harrop of his cliaracter — His faults — The child of his 
age — His enormous personal infiueuce — Love of hunting — His 
horses and dogs — His life at Bucklersbury, Ashdown Park, La 
Source, Dawley, Chanteloup — The last years of his life at 
BattcTsea — His influence over young statesmen — His European 
positiou. 

The HE is something inexpressibly sad in contemplating 
Bolingbroke's career. It would appear as though he was 
always struggling against an adverse fate. All throuo-h 
his life he was busy conceiving and attempting to carry 
out the most brilliant tours de force ; and just when he 
seemed on the verge of success, at the very moment of 
triumph, his schemes, like a house built with a pack of 
cards, were dashed to the ground, and the whole work of 
reconstruction had to be recommenced. On two celebrated 
occasions, when the cup of victory was at his lips, Fortune 
had interposed and condemned him, like Tantalus to 
forbear. In 1714 he had only wanted six weeks more 
six short weeks, in order to place the Tory party on a 
firm foundation, from which it would have commanded 
the whole position and dictated its own terms. All 



166 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

the struggles, the diplomacy, the risks, the fears of those 
fateful four years had been faced with one end In view. 
He had, like a traveller on a dark night in a strange 
country, fixed his eyes on a distant light, and had made 
up his mind that his safety lay in reaching that light, 
no matter what obstacles crossed his path. A war, 
the objects of which were popular, was raging ; negotia- 
tions for peace were at once set on foot. Unless the 
mercantile class were satisfied, the blood of the ministers 
would be demanded ; terms were forced from Louis which 
satisfied the whole trading interest. At home the Tories 
were furious at the absence of attacks on the Noncon- 
formists ; Bolingbroke gave them the Schism Act. 
Oxford wavered and vacillated ; Bolingbroke seized the 
leadership of the party some months before the Prime 
Minister resigned. We know the result. 

Again, when after his return from exile he threw himself 
into the struggle against Walpole, with what hopes did he 
enter on the campaign ! The difficulties appeared insuper- 
able, but he overcame them. The Jacobites and the Whigs 
agreed apparently to sink their differences, and to ignore 
the fact that their principles were diametrically opposed. 
With infinite labour, extending over some nine years, he 
had welded together, out of the heterogeneous atoms of 
Whigs, Tories, Jacobites, and literary men, a well- 
compacted Opposition, united in fierce hostility to the 
great Whig Minister. In 1733 the hitherto impregnable 
position seemed likely to be taken by storm, and in 1734 
the hopes of the assailants were high. The next year 
Bolingbroke was in France trying to find in his books 
consolation for the baseness of his allies. But his 
efforts had not been in vain. He had shattered the 
wall, and in 1742 his former friends and allies entered 
into the city and enjoyed the fruits of his now famous 



r 



BOLINGBROKE'S OABEEB AND GEAUACTEB. 167 

exertions. The friendship of the Whigs was more fatal 
to the Tories in the eighteenth century than their hostility. 
Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes might well have been 
on Bolingbroke's lips in 1742. 

And, if the life of Bolingbroke be examined more 
closely, disappointment will be seen ever dogging his 
steps. He hoped, by means of an interview with 
George I., to effect the fall of Walpole. He had the 
interview, and George said, " Bagatelles, bagatelles ! " 
The accession of George H. brought with it no realisa- 
tion of the hopes of the Opposition. In his private aims, 
too, he encountered failure. He was till the day of his 
death bent on reviving in himself the Earldom granted to 
a member of the family by James I., and which had 
become extinct in 1711. On finding that only the lower 
step in the Peerage had been given him in 1712 he wrote 
to Strafford in great anger. " I own to you that I felt 
more indignation than ever I had done." He continued 
throughout his life to pursue the visionary Earldom, and 
expected to receive it when Erederick, Prince of Wales, 
bjcame King. But Frederick died in March, 175], and 
Bolingbroke never secured the Earldom. 

If it be remembered that most of his days were spent in 
Opposition, the loss to the nation seems immense. One 
feels that the times were indeed "out of joint" when, by 
a series of accidents and by a system of party Govern- 
ment, England was deprived during the greater part of 
his life of the services of one of her ablest sons. And of 
his transcendent ability there is no question. His 
"genius and daring," Mr. Lecky writes, "were incon- 
testable." In brilliancy and impetuosity he had no 
equal. His style, though at times diffuse and declamatory, 
is usually brilliant and spirited. Chesterfield declared 
that until he had read the Betters on Patriotism and 



168 HENRY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

The Patriot King, he " did not know all the extent and 
powers of the English language." No more striking 
passages in his works can be found than his famous 
dissertation on eloquence and his delineation of Demos- 
thenes and Cicero in the pages of the essay on the 
Spirit of Patriotism. The following extracts will 
probably be read with interest : — 

"Eloquence has diarms to lead mankind, and gives a nobler 
superiority than power, that every dunce may use, or fraud, that every 
knave may employ. But eloquence must flow, like a stream that is 
fed by an abundant spring, and not spout forth a little frothy water 
on some gaudy day, and remain dry the rest of the year. The famous 
orators of Greece ami Rome were the statesmen and ministers of those 
commonwealths. The nature of their governments, and the humour 
of those ages, made elaboi-ace orations necessary. 'Hiey harangued 
oftener than tliey debated ; and the ars dicendl required more study 
and more exercise of mind and of body too, among them, than are 
necessary among us. But, as much pains as they took in learning 
how to conduct the stream of eloquence, they took more to enlarge 
the fountain from which it flowed. Hear Demosthenes, hear Cicero 
thunder against Philip, Catiline, and Antony. I choose the example 
of the first rather than that of Pericles, whom he imitated, or of 
Phocion, whom he opposed, or of any other considerable personage in 
Greece ; and the example of Cicero rather than that of Crassus, or of 
Hortensius, or of any other of the great men of Eome, because the 
eloquence of these two has been so celebrated, that we are accustomed to 
look upon them ahno-t as mere orators. They were oratois indeed, 
and no man who has a soul can read theu" orations, after the 
revolution of so many ages, atter the extinction of the governments, 
and of the people for whom they were composed, witliout feeling, at 
this hour, the passions they were designed to m^ve, and the sphit 
they were designed to raise" (JVor];s, vol. iv. pp. 214, 215). 

The latter part of his description of the secret of Cicero's 
oratorical success is particularly striking : — 

" His eloquence in jDrivate causes gave him first credit at Rome ; 
but it was this knowledge, this experience, and the continued habits 
of business that supported his reputation, enabled him to do so much 
service to his country, and gave force and authority to his eloquence. 
To little purpose would he have attacked Catiline with all the 



BOLINGBROKE'S CAREEB AND CHABACIEB. 169 

vehemence that indignation, and even fear, added to eloquence, if he 
had trusted to this weapon alone. This weapon alone would have 
secured neither him nor the senate from the poniard of that assassin. 
He would have had no occasion to boast that he had driven this 
infamous citizen out of tlie walls of Kome, ' abiit, excessit, evasit, 
erupit,' if he had not made it beforehand, impossible for him to 
continue any longer in them. As little occasion would he have had to 
assume the honour of defeating, without any tumult or any disorder, 
the designs of those who conspired to murder the Roman people, to 
destroy tl.e Roman empire, and to extinguish the Roman name ; if lie 
had not united, by skill and management in the common cause of 
their country, orders of men the most averse to each other, if he had 
not watched all tlie machiudtions of the conspirators in silence, and 
prepared a strength sufficient to resist them, at Rome and in the 
provinces, before he opened this scene of villany to the senate and the 
people. In a word, if he had not made much more use of political 
prudence, that is, cf the knowledge of mankind, and of the arts of 
government, which study and experience give, than of all the powers 
of his eloquence " (vol. iv. pp. 218, 219). 

His correspondence with his intimate friends, such as 
Pope and Swift is, as a rule, delightful, though often marred 
by an affectation of distaste for the world. His Political 
Correspondence contains the letters of a man of business. 
They go straight to the point, and are admirably clear 
and precise. 

" "Were Lord Bolingbroke to write to an emperor or to a statesman," 
Pope remarked, "he would fix on that point which was the most 
material, would place it in the strongest and finest light, and manage 
it so as to make it most serviceable for his purpose." 

In wit and eloquence he is far superior to any of his 
contemporaries. Of his conversational powers Chesterfield 
speaks highly : — 

" His manner of speaking in private conversation is just as elegant 
as his writings. Whatever subject he either speaks or writes upon, he 
adorns it with the most splendid eloquence ; not a studied or laboured 
eloquence, but such a flowing happiness of diction, which (from care, 
perhaps, at first) is become so habitual to him, that even his most 
familiar conversations, if taken down in writing, would bear the press, 
without the least correction, either as to method or to style." 



170 EENBYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

And the same writer's testimony to his eloquence is in- 
teresting as coming from a hostile witness : — 

"lam old enough to have heard him speak in Parliament, and I 
remember tliat,. though prejudiced against him by p:irty, I felt all 
the force and charms of his eloquence. Like Belial in Milton, 

'He made the worst appear the better cause.' 
All the internal and external advantages and talents of an orator are 
undoubtedly his ; figure, voice, elocution, knowledge, and, above all, 
the purest and most florid diction, with the justfst metaphors and 
liappiest images, had raised him to the post of Secretary-at-War, at 
four-and-twenty years old." 

Lord BroLio^ham's opinion was that, " if Bolingbroke 
spoke as he wrote, he must have been the greatest of 
modern orators, so far as composition goes." 

Though, unfortunately, owing to the imperfections of the 
Parliamentary Histonj for Queen Anne's reign, none of 
his speeches have come down to us, we can get some idea 
of his eloquence from the following passage from the 
Dissertation of Parties : — 

"If King Charles had found the naiion plunged in corruption, the 
people choosing their representatives for money, without any other 
rt'O-ard, and these representatives of the people, as well as the 
nobility, reduced by luxury to beg the unhallowed alms of a Court, or 
to receive, bke miserable hirelings, the wages of iniquity from a 

minister if he had found the nation, I say, in this condition (which 

extravagant supposition one cannot make without horror), he might 
have dishonoured her abroad, and impoverished and oppressed her at 
home, though he had been the weakest priuce on earth, and his 
Ministers the most odious and cent; mptible men that ever presumed 
to be ambitious. Our tatli! rs might have fallen into circumstances 
which compose tJie very quiutesseace of political misery. They might 
have sold their "birthright for porridge,' which was their own; they 
might have been bubbled by the foolish, bullied by the fearful, and 
insulted by those whom they despised. They would have deserved to 
be slaves, and they might have been treated as such. AVhen a free 
people crouch like camels to be loadtd, the next at hand, no matter 
who, mounts them, and they soon feel the whip and the spur of their 
tyrant ; for p tyrant, whether prince or minister, resembles the devil 



BOLUS GBBOKE'S CABEEB AND CHABACTEB. 171 

in many respects, particularly in this, he is often both the tempter 
and tormentor. He makes tlie criminal, and he punishes the crime " 
(vol. iii. pp. 110, 111). 

This passage, which was much admired by Lord 
Brougham, well carries out what Bolingbroke himself 
once said, that " eloquence must flow like a stream, that is 
fed by an abundant spring," and inclines me to believe 
that he dictated most of his writings to an amanuensis. 

The whole of the eighth Letter on The Study of History, 
which contains his defence of the Treaty of Utrecht, is 
nothing less than a brilliant speech. Brougham relates 
of Pitt that, 

" when the conversation rolled upon lost works, and some said they 
should prefer restoring the books of Livy, some of Tacitus, and 
some a Latin tragedy, he atx»nce decided for a speech of Bolingbroke." 

In this eighth Letter Pitt might have found a master- 
piece of Parhamentary oratory unsurpassed in Bolino-- 
broke's age. It was undoubtedly his eloquence which 
brought him into the foremost ranks of the Tory party and 
secured his rapid advance. It is always said that Walpole's 
fear of the influence of his oratory in the House of Lords was 
the principal reason of his refusal to allow Bolingbroke to 
re-enter Parliamentary life. There is no doubt whatever 
that Henry St. John was the first orator of his age. His 
intellectual qualities were of a high order, he had an 
intimate acquaintance with the great authors of antiquity, 
he had a perfect mastery of French and Italian, and a 
fair acquaintance with Spanish. He loved learning and 
literature for its own sake ; he excelled in history ; he 
explored " the unknown and unknowable regions of meta- 
physics." As he had a great love of acquiring knowledge 
and a marvellously retentive memory, it is no surprise to 
read that "the relative political and commercial in- 



172 HENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

terests of every country in Europe, particularly of his o^vn, 
are better known to him than perhaps to any man in it." 
His clear conception of the exigencies of a situation and 
of the necessary means to be adopted, his power of seizing 
opportunities, and the possession of the valuable instinct of 
leading men marks him out as a true statesman. 

Nor can it be objected that in him the more solid qualities 
which in such an eminent degree distinguished his rival, 
Robert Walpole, causing sober people to regard the Norfolk 
squire with something akin to enthusiasm, were wanting 
in Bolingbroke. His application astounded all who knew 
him ; " He engaged young," wrote Chesterfield, " and dis- 
tinguished himself in business, and his penetration was 
almost intuition." " He would plod," according to Swift, 
" whole days and nights like the lowest clerk in an office." 
Marlborough and Godolphin were delighted with the 
diligence of the young Secretary -at- War, who had applied 
himself with such energy to master the intricate financial 
and military details of his office. The history of England's 
statesmen furnishes few examples of such high capacities 
and abilities, combined with such power of application and 
concentration, as were to be found united in the person of 
Bolingbroke. 

In spite of these very remarkable powers, he was, 
owing to the political circumstances of his day, only in 
office from 1704 to 1 08, and from 1710 to 1714, and 
of those eight years his only opportunity of showing his 
real statesmanlike qualities was during the last four years 
of Anne's reign. Before 1704 he was on the side of the 
Government, and busy in making his way. From 1715 
to 1751, when his powers were at their best, he was in per- 
petual Opposition, employing his energies, so well adapted 
to political life, either in the service of a faction or in writing 
brilliant but, generally speaking, ephemeral essays. This 



BOLINGBBOEE'S GABEEB AND CHABACTEB. 173 

exclusion from a Parliamentary career dm-ing these thirty- 
six years was due to his flight, the great mistake of 
his life. It is impossible to guess to what extent his 
continued presence in Parliament would have modified 
the Whig triumph. Would he ever have gained, or, if 
gained, continued to enjoy, the unanimous confidence of 
the Tory party ? Mr. Lecky would reply in the negative. 

"His eminently Italian character," he writes, "delighting in 
elaborate intrigue, the contrast between his private life and his stoical 
professions, his notorious indifference to the religious tenets which 
were the very basis of the politics of his party, shook the confidence of 
the country gentry and country clergy, who formed the bulk of his 
followers" (History of England in the XVIIlth Century, vol. i, 
p. 131). 

Mr. Harrop, in his Political Study and Criticism of 
Bolingbrohe (pp. 191, 19-i), takes the same view in more 
elaborate language : — 

" His polished manners, his lively wit, his quick perceptions, his 
facile speech, his ready invention, the ease with which he caught and 
mimicked the intemperate tone of his rude supporters, his fondness 
for subterfuge and artifice, his affectation of philosophical imlifference 
to the objects for which he was at the moment most eagerly striving, 
his vanity, his industry, his simulated idleness, his unfeigned respect 
for speculative truth, the vastness and boldness of his political 
enterprises, the nervous apprehension of physical danger, the loftiness 
of his moral conceptions .... all these things Mere the marks of a 
character which, in its strange and various traits, an Italian of the great 
age of Florence would have studied with respectful interest, but 
which repelled the TruUibers and Westerns from its very dissimilarity 
to their own." 

His faults were partly hereditary, partly due to the 
manners of tlie time. "Violent partisanship," it has been 
said, ran in his blood. In the Barons' War, in the 
struggle of Henry YII. against Pretenders to his throne, 
in the Irish wars of Elizabeth, members of the St. John 



174 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

family were to be found. In the seventeenth century the 
combative and partisan nature of the family still more 
strongly asserted itself, various members of the different 
branches into which the family was divided fighting 
respectively for King and Parliament. And Bolingbroke 
found in the politics of his day ample opportunity for the 
exercises of his partisan spirit. During the whole of 
Anne's reign, party considerations were mixed up in- 
extricably with every question of home or foreign policy. 
The absence of political morality in the statesmen of the 
day needs no demonstration. Boliugbroke's own mercurial 
temperament fell in too readily with the prevailing 
sentiments of the day. Circumstances made opportunism 
the characteristic of his age, and Bolingbroke, like 
Marlborough, Shrewsbury, Harley, and, in fact, like most 
of the leading politicians, tends at times, especially in the 
reign of George II., to lay himself open to the charge of 
opportunism. 

" He lias noble and generous sentiments," wrote Oliesterfield, 
" rather than fixed reflected principles of good nature and friendship ; 
but they are more violent than lasting, and suddenly and often 
varied to their opposite extremes, with regard even to the same 
persons." 

Always impulsive and impetuous, "his virtues and his 
vices, his reason and his passions did not," Chesterfield 
tells us, '* blend themselves by a gradation of tints, but 
formed a shinmg and sudden contrast " His conduct and 
actions, however intemperate at times, did not preclude the 
existence from his youth upwards of a devouring ambition^ 
which pursued him all his life, and which seems to have 
not only deprived him of the power of appreciating the 
meaning of peace and content, but led him at times into 
violent courses. Mr. Wyon thinks that his ambition in 
1715 had stifled his patriotism, and that, had he thought 



BOLINGBIWKE'S CABEEB AND CEABACTEB. 175 

the project a feasible one, he would, for the sake of reten- 
tion of* office, have brought in the Pretender. This also 
seems to be the view held by Count Remusat. To this 
insane thirst for power Mr. Wyon also attributes Bolino-- 
broke's blunder in joining the Jacobites. To gain the 
support of his extreme Tory followers he allowed an 
intolerant Bill to pass, though he himself despised the 
men who persecuted their religious opponents. The 
opinion held by Torcy and the Scotch Jacobites that he 
was insincere was probably erroneous, due to their 
ignorance of the English Constitution. The Spanish 
Ministers in the early part of the seventeenth century fell 
into the same blunder. They thought James I. was all- 
powerful, and could restore Eoman Catholicism by a wave 
of his hand ; the Frencii Minister similarly was unable to 
understand why Anne and her Ministers could not repeal 
the Act of Settlement and bring in James Edward. 
Throughout his life, Bolingbroke was always full of self-con- 
fidence, struggling to be first, in no matter what circum- 
stances he found himself He took the lead in literary 
coteries, and in social clubs, no less than in the Cabinet 
of a Ministry, or in the Council Chamber of the 
Opposition. His talents gave him the foremost position, 
and he always had a considerable number of devoted 
followers. 

None the less, he had many faults which detract from 
his reputation as a party leader. His want of any real 
sympathy with aims of the ordinary country gentleman 
and ordinary country clergyman, who were his principal 
supporters, counteracted his readiness to devote himself 
loyally to their interests. His outbursts of recklessness 
and defects in judgment tend, too, to modify a hio-h 
opinion of his fitness to lead a large and influential party. 
There is no doubt that, with the exception of the views 



176 EENRYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

expressed in The Patriot King, his ideas died with him. 
The slight influence exercised by his many writings after 
his death seems to prove the possession on his part of an 
immensely strong will. All his correspondence goes to 
show that his individuality made itself felt on all with 
whom he came in contact. Walpole feared its power; 
Pulteney fell under its influence ; the Boy Patriots all 
yielded to the fascination of the personality of the old 
statesman. In 1712 the dignity of his manners and his 
handsome presence had made a profound impression on 
the French nobility. 

Want of consistency is to be found in much of his life 
and writings, due in great measure, to the peculiar 
circumstances of his times. As the history of the life of 
this remarkable man is studied, it will be seen that he is 
distinctly the child of an age full of inconsistencies and 
contradictions. The age of Anne found the Church a 
powerful corporation in touch with the mass of the 
nation ; Bolingbroke led the High Church party. The 
eighteenth century, before it has far advanced, shakes off 
its earlier religious enthusiasm, and becomes scientific, 
materialistic, the age of common sense ; Bolingbroke, 
the friend of Yoltaire, becomes the exponent of a crude 
rationalism. 

His intense political interests did not preclude the 
existence of a genuine love of the country and country 
pursuits. Like his rival Walpole, he had keen sporting 
tastes. At Bucklersbury, at Ashdown Park, at La 
Source, Dawley, and at Argeville, he took the most 
genuine pleasure in his hounds and horses. His beauti- 
ful home at Bucklersbury lay in the heart of the country. 
There he had spent most of the two years of his first 
retirement from political life ; during the last four years 
of Anne's reign, he was very fond of driving there from 



BOLINGBBOKKS CABEEB AND CHABACTEB. Ill 

Windsor and spending a night or two in the country. At 
Bucklersbury he was no longer the statesman, but the 
model country gentleman, interested in his garden and 
his hounds. He would smoke with his neighbours, and 
discuss the affairs of the country and the prospects of the 
crops. Swift describes how he went in the summer of 
1711 to Bucklersbury, and how Mr. Secretary was a 
perfect country gentleman there. '' He smoked tobacco 
with one or two neighbours, he inquired after the wheat 
in such a field, he went to visit his hounds, and knew 
all their names." A considerable part of these years he 
spent at Peterborough's house at Parson's Green, Fulham, 
which the erratic Earl had allowed him to use. Even in 
the autumn of 1713, Bolingbroke, in spite of the critical 
state of affi:iirs, found time to combine with politics the 
enjoyment of his favourite. pursuit. A letter to Strafford, 
dated Ashdown Park, October the 8th, begins : '' Tired 
as I am with fox hunting, since the messenger is to return 
immediately to London, I cannot neglect," &c. &c. We 
find also a letter to the Due d'Aumont, the French 
Ambassador, dated, De mon Ecurie le21me Octohre, 1713, 
and beginning : " Parmi les chiens et les chevaux, au 
milieu de la plus profonde retraite, je n'ai rien a souhaiter 
pour etre tout-a-fait heureux que la conversation du cher 
Due d'Aumont," &c. On December the 3rd of the same 
year, writing to Sir John Stanley, he excuses the delay 
of General Evans in setting out for his command on the 
plea that his Colonel, '* young Hawley, had the mis- 
fortune to break his bones in fox huntins: with me." 

La Source, whither he retired with the second Lady 
Bolingbroke after his rupture with the Pretender, was a 
beautiful spot. There he, as usual, combined study and 
field sports, and took a great interest In beautifying his 
new home. 



178 EENRY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

''I have in my wood," lie wrote to Swift on July the 21st, 172 1, 
" the biggest and clearest spring in Europe. ... If in a year's time 
you should find leisure to write to me, send me some mottoes for 
groves, and streams, and fine prospects and retreats, and contempt for 
grandeur, &c. I have one for my green-houses, and one for an alley 
which leads to my apartment, which are happy enough. The first is, 
Hie ver assiduum atque alienis mennhus mstas ; the other is, Fallentis 
semita vitie.^' 

At Dawley he built stables and kennels, and expended, 
it is said, 4:123,000 on improvements. During his first 
autumn there, he was thrown from his horse: "I am in 
great concern," wrote Swift to Pope, " at what I am just 
told is in some of the newspapers, that Lord Bolingbroke 
is much hurt by a fall in hunting." Swift's fears proved, 
however, groundless, as Pope wrote, in answer, to assure 
him that *"' Lord Bolingbroke had not the least harm by 
his fall." On his retirement to France, in 1735, he divided 
his time between Chanteloup and his hunting-lodge at 
Argeville. At both residences he was surrounded by 
horses and dogs. It is difficult to understand why the 
editor of the latest edition of Pope's works should 
indulo^e in the sneer that Bolino^broke '' at least thouijht 
himself attached to the diversion of huntinor-," The 
minute details into which he enters in his correspondence 
with Wyndham about his dogs and horses point to a real 
interest in these things, not to a mere attempt 

" To be,f?uilo the thing he was 
Bj seeming other v/ise." 

When he finally settled at Battersea, in 1744, his 
health was much broken. Pitt found him dogmatic and 
pediintic, often querulous and fretful. It is a matter of 
regret that Pitt only knew him when he was succumbing 
to the infirmities of age. He was much attached to his 
wife, and a good master to his servants, whom he remem- 



BOLINGBBOKE'S CABEEB AND CHABAGTEB. 179 

bered in his will. He vyas kind and good-natured in 
ordinary life. Mrs. Delaney, the niece of Sir John Stanley, 
remembered sittmg when a child on Lord Bolingbroke's 
knee at a puppet-show. He always treated his half- 
brothers with great consideration. George, the eldest, 
had received from him constant assistance, and on his early 
death Bolingbroke helped the two younger brothers. At 
Battersea his household was mainly French. His posi- 
tion as Lord of the Manor brought with it performance 
of certain duties. We find him commissioning jMarch- 
mont to buy him '^a decent Common Prayer Book, such 
an one as a Lord of the Manor may hold forth to the 
edification of the parish. Let it be quarto." At times 
too, he occupied the family pew in the old parish church. 
As old age crept on, he stayed more and more at home. 
In September, 1746, be visited Lord Cornbury in Oxford- 
shire, where he met, among others, Pitt, then Paymaster-of 
the Forces; in 1747 his old enemies, gout and rheumatism, 
drove him to Bath. From that time he was constantly 
a cripple, and frequently deprived of the use of his ri^ht 
hand. 

With his death England lost a statesman who in good 
and evil fortunes made his personality felt on all who 
came across his path. In both public and in private life 
he had always been the centre of a political p irty or of 
a literary coterie. At La Source, at Chanteloup, at Hawley, 
and at Battersea, we see him surrounded by an admirino- 
throng of visitors, who were for the most part attracted 
by his marvellous conversational powers, and to whom 
he discoursed on philosophy and politics. His successful 
conclusion of the Peace of Utrecht, his share in the over- 
throw of AYalpole, his influence not only on the risino- 
English politicians, but also on Pope and on Voltaire, 
combined to raise him to an almost European position. In 

N 2 



180 EENBT ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

expressing his admiration of the deceased Statesman, in 
March, 1752, the President of the Grand Chamber of the 
Parliament of Paris only reflected the sentiment of all 
men who have studied the political aims and literary 
career of the Great Lord Bolingbroke. 



C 181 ) 



CHAPTER IX, 

BOLINGBEOKE'S LITEEAKY FEIENDSHIPS. 

Close connection between politics and literature — Its results — Defoe — 
Importance of political writings — Addison— John Philips — 
Bolingbroke's literary friends — Pope — Parnell — Arbuthnot — 
Prior — Gay — Swift — Society of Brothers — Effect of Anne's death 
— Bolingbroke at Dawley— Pope at Twickenham — Meeting of 
the survivors of the Scriblerus Club — The correspondence of 
Bolingbroke, Pope, and Swift — Influence of — Bolingbroke on 
Pope — The Essay j)n Man — The Moral Essays — Satires and 
Epistles of Horace imitated — Devotion of Pope to Bolingbroke — 
Influence of Pope on Bolingbroke — Voltaire's relations with 
Bolingbroke — They meet first at La Source — Voltaire's exile — 
Comes to England — Studies English literatui-e — Influence of 
Bolingbroke on Voltaire's Lettres sur les Anglais — Voltaire's 
philosophical views — Extent of the influence of Bolingbroke's 
deistical opinions on Voltaire — Bolingbroke's literary taste* and 
literary friendships. 

Of the statesmen who are no longer with us there 
is no name more intimately connected with literature than 
that of Bolingbroke. There has certainly been no English 
statesman whose influence, whether for good or for evil, on 
the whole train of thought and consequently on the 
productions of two such men as dissimilar as were Pope 
and Voltaire, has been more marked. A very delightful 
volume might be written upon Bolingbroke as a man of 
letters. In an age singularly fertile in prose writers, who 
were remarkable for the elegance and lucidity of their 
style, Bolingbroke more than held his own. In an age 
distinguished for the production of exquisite skill in ver- 



182 HENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

sification, Bolingbroke was considered competent to revise 
the proofs of one of the most renowned poems of the 
greatest master of style in the eighteenth century. In 
an age v/hen epistolary correspondence, much of which were 
still regarded as models ol letter-writing, was the fashion, 
Bolingbroke's letters will bear comparison with the cor- 
respondence of Lady Mary Montague or with the letters 
of Pope. 

The patron of struggling authors, the friend and 
protector of Dryden, the intimate friend and companion 
of Pope, Voltaire, and Swift, an author of some of 
the most interesting political disquisitions ever written, 
Bolingbroke will be handed down to posterity as a dis- 
tinguished member of that brotherhood of literary states- 
men which includes such men as Burke and Canning, 
and in our own day has seen added to its ranks Lord 
Beacon sfield and Mr. John Morley, Lord Iddesleigh and 
Mr. Gladstone. 

Though he may be said, like all lovers of books, to have 
read continuously, there are two periods in his life when his 
connection with literature and literary men is especially 
worthy of notice. In the first of these periods he was 
the centre of that brilliant throng of men of letters who 
gave such a peculiar lustre to the reign of Queen Anne. 
The well-known characteristic of the literary history of her 
reign and to some extent of that of George I. was the 
close connection existing between politics and literature ; 
a connection which brought with it results so acceptable to 
the writers of the day. 

The social consequence of men of letters followed 
immediately upon the recognition of their political 
importance. Men of literary genius were not only 
patronised by, but were brought into familiar intercourse 
with the leading Ministers as well as with the Opposition. 



BOLINGBBOKE'S LITEBABT FBIENDSHIPS, 183 

Literary men were found occupying government posts. 
Prior and Gay were employed on important embassies, 
Addison became a Secretary of State, Swift was the 
trusted adviser of Oxford and of Bolingbroke. 

The mternal history of England from -1688 to 1727 
was exceptionally exciting. The Revolution followed 
by the unpopular measures of William, the strug.(Tles 
in connection with the Peace of Utrecht, the un- 
certainty-hanging over the Succession, and the opposition 
of a large portion of the population to George I. 
gave great opportunities to essayists, pamphleteers, 
and poets. The absence of a daily press, of public 
meetings, and of extended electoral campaigns at a period 
when paity interests ran high and the popular excitement 
was intense, produced a crowd of writers of political 
tracts. No Minister could disdain their aid, when it 
was only by means of such pamphlets and broadsides 
that he could guide or educate public opinion. Defoe 
had already distinguished himself as William III.'s 
adjutant. He had, in a stirring pamphlet, shown that a 
standing army is not inconsistent with a free Government. 
A few years later he stood in the pillory for his Shortest 
Way tvith the Dissenters ; a fine species of irony not 
appreciated by the High Church party, who were by it 
recommended to hang any Dissenter found in a Con- 
venticle. Oxford and Bolingbroke saw at once the 
immense importance of securing the ablest political writer 
of their day. Swift's articles in the Examiner, his 
Conduct of the Allien, and his Bemarhs itj^on the Barrier 
Treaty completely revolutionised opinion in England with 
regard to the war. His Publie Spirit of the Whigs was 
an answ'er to Steele's Crisis. The Bevieiv appeared in 
1704, and supported, as a rule, whatever Governm.ent was 
in power. The Examiner, a Thursday w^eekly paper, 



184 HENBYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOEE. 

started by Bolingbroke, with the aid of Atterbury, Prior, 
and Dr. Friend, in the autumn of 1710, was opposed the 
same year by the Whig Examiner, edited by Addison. 

Each side, too, had its own poets. When Addison, 
the Whig poet laureate, and the friend of HaUfax, 
wrote the Campaign in honour of the victory of Blenheim, 
Bolingbroke at once employed John Philips the author 
of The Splendid Shilling, and of Cyder ^ to write his 
Blenheim. Literature and politics were indeed closely 
intertwined, and it was always Bolingbroke's aim to 
shine as a leader in literature no less than in politics. 
His relations throughout his life with the great literary 
giants of the day bring out the most pleasing side of his 
character, and give us glimpses of the most delightful 
portions of his life. Even before his entry into Parliament 
he had aspired to be a poet. He had formed Dryden's 
acquaintance, and had written some verses eulogistic of 
the translation of Virgil. He patronised, as we have seen, 
John Philips, a poet who died in 1708, at the early age of 
thirty-three, and who ended his Blenheim with some lines 
on the Manor House of Bucklersbury : — 

''Thus from the nois)'^ crowd exempt, with ease 
And plenty blest, amid the mazy groves, 
Sweet solitude ! Where warbling birds provoke 
The silent muse, delicious rural seat 
Of St. John, English Memmius, I presumed 
To sing Britannic trophies, inexpert 
Of war, with mean attempt." 

During the years of his Secretaryship, the literary circle 
with which he associated contained, among others. Swift, 
Pope, Congreve, Parnell, Arbuthnot, Prior, and Gay. 
Most, if not all, of them were members of the Society 
of Brothers, and later of the famous Scriblerus Club. 

Pope, whose acquaintance with Bolingbroke was to 



BOLINGBBOKWS LITEBABY FBIENDSHIPS. 185 

lead to such momentous results, was introduced to him 
by Swift. The great Doctor had been pleased with the 
poet's Windsor Castle, which appeared in March, 1713, 
and in which Pope sneered at the Revolution, declared 
enthusiastically for the Peace, and wrote a flattering dedi- 
cation to Bolingbroke. Even in those busy days, Boling- 
broke found time to correct portions of the Translation 
of the Iliad, at which Pope was then working. The 
appearance of the first volume, however, found Boling- 
broke in exile, Oxford in prison, and Swift in Ireland. 
By his leaning towards the Tories in his Windsor Castle, 
Pope had offended his old Whig friends, and had been 
attacked in an underhand manner in the Guardian. 
His recompense for his partial alienation from the Whig 
coterie, and for his abandonment of his original intention 
to keep clear from politics, was found in that friendship 
with Bolingbroke, which grew into the devotion of a life. 
Swift and Prior saw probably more of Bolingbroke than 
the others, as in their respective ways they were both 
occupied in gi-ving very valuable aid to the Government. 
One of the accusations brought afterwards* against Prior 
and Bolingbroke was that they had been unseasonably 
witty during the most serious and solemn negotiations. 
Swift had been introduced by Oxford to Bolingbroke in 
October, 1710, and, as has been seen, speedily became a 
great political power on the Tory side. He soon grew 
very intimate with the leading Ministers, and his Journal 
to Stella is full of most valuable political and social inform- 
ation. He has left a very interesting sketch of St. John's 
character as it appeared to him in the autumn of 1711. 

"I think Mr. St. John," he wiites, "the greatest young man I ever 
knew ; wit, capacity, beauty, quickness of aj^prehension, good learnino- 
and an excellent taste; tlie ^best orator in the House of Commons 
admirable conversation, good nature, and good manners ; generous, 



186 HENBYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

and a despiser of money. His only fault is talking to his friends in 
way of complaint of too great a load of business, which looks a little 
like affectation; and he endeavours too much to mix the fine 
gentleman and man of pleasure with the man of business." 

He had been as early as February, 1711, admitted to 
Harley's regular Saturday dinners, where Harley and 
St. John both addressed him as Jonathan. Swift's alliance 
with the Tories marks the time when the power of the Press 
was greater than ever before known in England, and when 
political writers for the first time ceased to be mere hirelings 
and became the intimates of Ministers. " I dined to-day 
• with Mr. Secretary St. John," wrote Swift in these years of 
his prosperity ; " I went to the Court of Requests at noon, 
and sent Mr. Harley into the House to call the Secretary, 
and let him know I would not dine with him if he dined 
late." From the beginning of 1711, too, Swift began to 
dine with Bolingbroke every Sunday, and during the 
summer months of 1711, when the Queen's residence at 
Windsor necessitated St. John's presence there every 
other Sunday, Swift not unfrequently visited him. Some- 
times Bolingbroke broke his journey at Peterborough 
House. On September 1, 1711, he and Swift dined 
there in Peterborough's absence — the occasion when 
Swift was much struck with the kitchen-garden. '• It 
is," he wrote, " the finest fruit garden I have ever seen 
about this town, and abundance of hot walls for grapes, 
which are ripening fast." 

The second period in Bolingbroke's literary career m.ay 
be said to date from his return from exile. During this 
period he had more leisure and more time to consider 
political, philosophical, and religious questions. He was 
older, he had more experience ; his residence at La 
Source had resulted in much mental, activity. On his 
return to England, in 1725, Dawley became the centre of 



BOLINGBBOKWS LITEBABY FBIENDSIIIBS. 187 

a literary circle, which included for a time Pope, Swift, 
Gay, and Voltaire. Dawley itself was a fine spacious 
residence, situated in the village of Harlington, near 
Oxbridge, fourteen miles from London and one mile from 
the Bath Road. The Manor House was taken down in 
1780. There, in Bolingbroke's own words, " he was in a 
hermitage where no man came but for the sake of the 
hermit : " for then he found " that the insects, which used 
to hum and buzz about him in the sunshine, fled to men 
of more prosperous fortune and forsook him when in 
the shade." There his life at Bucklersbury in the years 
1708 and 1709, was reproduced in many of its features. 
True, he still took an interest in politics, and during the 
greater part of his residence at Dawley was busy 
organising attacks on Walpole in The Craftsman, and 
within the walls of Parliament. But during mtervals of 
the struggle, as, for example in 1728, after the failure of 
his bopes to see Walpole ruined upon the accession of 
George II., he lived the life of a country gentleman, 
devoting himself on the one hand to study, and on the 
other to farming and hunting. On June the 28th, 1728, 
Pope wrote from Dawley to Swift a letter which is often 
quoted : — 

" I now hold the pen for my Lord Bolingbroke, who is reading your 
letter between two haycocks ; but his attention is somewhat diverted 
by casting his eyes on the clouds, not in admiration of what you say, 
but for fear of a shower. ... As to the return of his health and vigour, 
were you here, you might inquire of his haymakers ; but, as to his 
temperance, I can answer that (for one whole day) we hare had 
nothing for dinner but mutton broth, beans and bacon, and a barn- 
door fowl. Now his lordship is run aft.^r his cart, I have a moment, 
left to myself to tell you that 1 overheard him yesterday agree with a 
painter for £200 to paint his country hall with trophies of ricks, 
spades, prongs, &c., and other ornaments, merely," added the pot-t 
maliciously, ' to countenance his calling this place a farm.' " 

But it is in its relation to Bolingbroke 's intellectual 



188 HENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOEE. 

influence that this handsome country-house has become 
so widely known. Dawley was within a pleasant ride 
from Twickenham, where Pope had lived since 1718, and 
Dawley and Twickenham both became literary centres, 
the fame of which will live long in the history of English 
literature. 

Time had already laid its hand on many of the members 
of that brilliant circle which had gathered round Boling- 
broke during the last years of Anne's reign. Atterbury 
was an exile, Prior and Parnell were both dead. At 
Dawley and Twickenham, however, the survivors of that 
circle and of that celebrated literary association, the 
Scriblerus Club, again came together. The year 1725 
and the next few years were to make most of those 
survivors famous. The year 1725 marks the beginning of 
that period in Pope's literary career in which the works he 
composed are his greatest in " sheer literary power." In 

1727 three volumes of his Miscellanies, followed in 

1728 by the Dunciad, showed the world the strength 
of Pope's satire. In 1726 Swift was at Dawley and 
Twickenham, and on July the 7th Pope entertained at 
a dinner, which may be termed historical, Congreve, 
Bolingbroke, Gay, and Swift, who had lately arrived 
from Ireland bringing with him the manuscript of 
Gullivers Travels, which in 1727 was published anony- 
mously. At the end of May, 1726, Voltaire arrived 
in England, and at once renewed the acquaintance he 
had made with Bolingbroke at La Source in 1721. 
That Statesman in 1727 wrote the Vision of Camelich in 
the Craftsman, and further attacked Walpole in the 
first number of the Occasional Writer, In 1728 Gay's 
Beggars^ Opera was produced, over the success of which 
the inmates of Dawley rejoiced. 

What a picture is presented to us ! Bolingbroke 



BOLINGBBOEE'S LITEBAB Y FBIENDSHIPS. 189 

affecting to be merely interested in country pursuits, 
and rarely mentioning politics when conversing with his 
friends, but still burning with his restless ambition, and 
sparing no pains to secure Walpole's downfall; Swift 
busy with his charming satire which, was to secure an 
instantaneous and permanent popularity ; Yoltaire cor- 
recting his Henriade, which he at first intended to delicate 
to Bolingbroke ; and which, having already appeared in 
1723 as La Ligue, was published in March, 1728 ; 
Arbuthnot, Gay, and Pope full of plans for revenge on 
the miserable Whig writers, the result of their delibera- 
tions being The Dunciad. Powerful as The Dunciad is, 
it belongs to a far lower level of poetry than The Essay 
on Criticism and The Bape of the Lock, which had 
already won for Pope a foremost place among living 
English poets. 

The establishment of Bolingbroke in Pope's neighbour- 
hood resulted, not only in a warm friendship between the 
two men, but enabled Bolingbroke to influence beneficially 
the genius of Pope. The correspondence of Bolingbroke 
and Pope with Swift gives a pleasant idea of their mutual 
relations, and of their friendship with Arbuthnot, Gay, 
and Congreve. Any one who reads those letters will 
emphatically endorse Mr. Leslie Stephen's assertion, 
" that there is scarcely a more interesting volume in the 
language than that which contains the correspondence oi 
Swift, Bolingbroke, and Pope " {Fope, by Leslie Stephen, 
p. 156). 

Swift's dislike to his residence in Ireland gives his 
letters a bitter turn : '^ I reckon no man is thoroughly 
miserable unless he be condemned to dwell in Ireland," 
he had written some sixteen years previously, and he con- 
tinued to hold the same views. He took, however, great 
interest in the doings of his friends in England, though he 



190 HENBYST. JOBN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

only crossed over from Dublin twice during the period, in 
1726, and for the last time in 1727. He was delighted 
at the success of Gay's opera, he was impatient to see The 
Dunciad; he regarded Bolingbroke, Pope, and himself as 
" a pecuhar triumvirate, who have nothing to expect or to 
fear." But his letters are those ofan avowed misanthrope. 
Everything had gone wrong with him, his friends were 
either dead or far away, his health was rapidly declining, 
his hopes of English preferment on the death of George I. 
had been dashed to the ground, and he had now returned 
to Ireland to leave it no more. In 1729 he wrote to 
Bolingbroke : — 

" ' You tliink, as I ought to think, that it is time for me to have done 
with the world ; and so I would, if I could get into a better before I 
was called into the best, and not die here in a rage, like a poisoned 
rat in a hole.' " 

His sorrows and despondency colour the whole of his 
correspondence with his old friends, and increase till 
death in October, 1745, withdraws from life's stage that 
stern humorist, who had played so important a part 
during the period when Bolingbrohe's star was in the 
ascendant. He rose with Bolingbroke to a political im- 
portance never before realised by a man of letters. After 
the death of Anne, though, like Bolingbroke, he secured 
certain political successes, as in the case of Wood's Half- 
pence, he never mixed again with members of Cabinets or 
advised Ministers on questions of policyo 

Bolingbroke's correspondence is of an entirely different 
character. Though, like Swift, cut off from any active 
share in politics, though like him a disappointed man, 
though similarly bristling with keen prejudices, his letters 
have no despairing tone. Mr. Leslie Stephen describes 
in some admirable words the effect upon the reader of a 
perusal of Bolingbroke's letters to Swift and Pope : — 



BOLINGBBOKWS LITEBAMY FBIEm SHIPS. 191 

"We see throtigh Bolingbroke's magnificent self-deceit; the flowing 
manners of the statesman, who, though the game is lost, is longing for 
a favourable turn of the card, but still alfects to solace himself with 
philosophy, and wraps himself iu dignified reflections upon the 
ble-sings of retirement, contrast with Swift's downright avowal of 
indignant scorn for himself and mankind" {Pope, by Leslie Stephen 
p. 157). 

Pope's letters are, as might be expected, characterised 
by hypocrisy, sympathy for. his friends, and great admira- 
tion for Bolingbroke. Of the three friends, Pope was 
during these years alone successful. His frequent 
declarations of indifference to the applause of the world 
came strangely from a man who was above all men most 
keenly desirous of fame and sensitive of adverse criticism. 
His worship of Bolingbroke was sincere. At one tirae he 
writes that "it looks as if that great man had been 
placed here by mistake.-" And he continues that, " when 
the comet appeared a month or two ago, I sometimes 
fancied that it might be come to carry him home, as a 
coach comes to one's door for other visitors." And later 
he begs Swift to argue Bohngbroke out of his fruitless 
interference with politics, and complains that that 
statesman is so taken up witb particular men, that he 
neglects mankind, and is still a creature of the world, 
not of the universe. 

Meanwhile the genius of Pope, which had just shown 
its power of direct satire in The Dimciad^ fell under the 
influence of Bolingbroke. 

"Between 1732 and 1710," saj's De Quincey, "he was chiefly 
engaged in satires, which uniformly speak a high moral tone in the 
midst of personal invective ; or in poems directly philosophical, which 
almost as uniformly speak the bitter tone of satire in the midst of 
dispassionate ethics." 

His Essay on Man was undertaken at the instio-ation 
of Bolingbroke, who took the greatest interest in the 



192 HENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

work. In Pope's garden at Twickenham he had ah^eady 
frequently conversed with him on philosophic subjects, 
and further, in order to make clear his meaning, 
Bolingbroke described, in an enormous number of letters 
or essays to Pope, his philosophic system. 

" Does Pope talk to you," writes Bolingbroke to Swift in 1731, " of 
the noble work whicb, at my instigation, lie bas begun in such a 
manner that he must be convinced by this time I judged better of Ins 
talents than he did ? " 

While the Essay on Man was still in progress, Pope 
wrote the Moral Essays, which Bolingbroke, in a letter 
to Swift, describes as a fine work, and in its way superior 
to Horace. The first of the four epistles which composed 
The Essay on Man appeared in 1733, and the other parts 
followed during 1733 and 1731. In them religion is put 
on a rational basis, and Bolingbroke's sentiments find full 
expression throughout the whole poem. Between 173-3 
and 1738, in the Satires and Epistles of Horace Imitated, 
Pope attacked violently the followers of Walpole. Tliese 
satires and epistles form, it has been said, ''a concentrated 
essence of the bitterness of the Opposition." Pope made 
no secret of his literary obligations to Bolingbroke. His 
admiration for that statesman and his writings remained 
unchecked till death came in 1744 to sever one of the 
most famous literary friendships on record. In 1738 
Bolingbroke, during a visit to England, spent some time 
at Twickenham, and in the next year Pope wrote an 
account of his doings, to Swift, then in his declining 
years : — 

" He has sold Dawley for £26,000, much to his own satisfaction. 
His plan of life is now a very agreeable one; in the finest country of 
Franf^e, divided between study and exercise, for he still reads and 
writes five or six hours a day, and generally hunts twice a week. He 
has the whole fo;est of FontaiDebk au at his command, with the King's 



BOLINGBBOKE'S LITEBABY FBIENDSHIBS. 193 

stables and dogs, &c., his lady's son-in-law being governor of the 
place. ... I never saw him in stronger health, or in better humour 
With his friends, or more indiffeient and dispassionate to his enemies 
.... We often commemoratjd you during the five months we lived 
together at Twickenham, at wliich place could I see you again, as I 
hope to see him, I would envy no country in the world." 

The complete ascendancy which Bolingbrpke had 
gamed during his residence at Dawley over Pope is well 
ilhistrated by a letter written by the poet shortly after 
Wyndham's death. In it he assures Bolingbroke that 
England can now be saved only by his ability. And his 
resolution to return to England, should it be necessary, he 
styles as being "not patriotism, but downright piety." 
Little less than canonisation would be fitting for such a man. 

To Bolingbroke Pope's death was a great blow. For 
upwards of twenty years they had been the closest friends, 
seeing much of one another, engaged in similar works, 
holding the same views. Bolingbroke's influence had 
done much for Pope, and the sensitive Pope had repaid 
the debt by persuading Bolingbroke to withdraw his 
exclusive interest in politics and " low ambitions." Pope 
loved fame ; Bolingbroke enabled him to produce the 
Essay on Man. Pope enjoyed revenge ; Bolingbroke's 
suggestion that he should write the Imitations of Horace 
w^as carried out with triumphant success. On the other 
hand, the close intimacy with the poet had a corresponding 
effect on the statesman. Bolingbroke's Epistolart/ Essays 
were written in answer to Pope's appeal, and Bolingbroke's 
great interest in the higher regions of thought during these 
years was in no small measure due to the presence of an 
enthusiastic disciple. Bolingbroke's influence over Pope 
was exercised principally by m.eans of conversation. " His 
manner of speaking in private conversation," says Chester- 
field, " is as full and elegant as his writings." Voltaire 
had already felt the influence of these conversations. 

o 



194 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

The author of the Henriade first met Bollngbroke at 
La Source in 1721, and was profoundly impressed by his 
host's philosophical and historical ideas. Bolingbroke had 
pleased him by placing La Ligue at the head of French 
poetry, and Voltaire became then, like Pope later, an 
eager disciple of the English statesman. In 1724 
Bolingbroke writes from France to Pope, that he is 
reading Voltaire's DeatJi of Mariamne, which was to be 
played that Lent, and that Voltaire hopes soon to 
introduce himself to Pope. This introduction took place 
in 1726, when Voltaire paid his first visit to England. 
Before that visit, Pope, not being a French scholar, had 
with difficulty read La Ligue ^ and had written to Boling- 
broke, praising the poem in a qualified manner : " I 
cannot," he says, " pretend to judge with any exactness of 
the beauties of a foreign language which I understand 
but imperfectly." 

The circumstances under which the young Franpois 
Arouet paid his celebrated visit to England tended to 
heio-hten his admiration for much that he saw and heard. 
Twice had he tasted of the Bastille, the first time (1716) 
his imprisonment being the result of a poem commenting 
upon the social abuses of the day. The Government of 
the Regent, which is supposed by some to have inaugurated 
a reaction from the despotism of Louis XIV., was not going 
to allow without protest a criticism of the social and 
governmental evils under which France was then groaning. 
The young Arouet was therefore shut up in the Bastille 
on the suspicion of being the author of the poem. His 
challenofe of the Chevalier de Rohan for an insult was 
answered by another imprisonment, followed by an 
injunction to leave Paris. With a keen sense of the 
disadvantages of hving under a tyrannical government 
Voltaire, as he is now called, came to England. "He left 



BOLINGBBOKWS LITEBABT FBIBNDSEIBS. 19'. 

France," says Mr. John Morley, "a poet; he returned to 
it a sage." 

He arrived just before the blighting influence of 
Walpole's government had fallen upon the men of letters. 
The brilliant group of the Queen Anne men, though 
sadly decimated, was still in existence. The close con- 
nection between literature and politics continued, and 
the contrast between the state of things in France, where a 
poet was caned by a nobleman's lackey, and the feeling in 
England, which rewarded poetic ability with political posts 
and with well-endowed sinecures, was thoroughly appre- 
ciated by the author of the Henriade. 

None the less striking to the French poet was the, to 
him, extraordinary liberty enjoyed by the Press. He saw 
a people well-to-do not only saying what they pleased, 
but printing without let or hindrance the most direct 
personal attacks on the Ministers and the most scathing 
criticisms on their policy. He perceived that invectives 
against the religion of the country were permitted, and 
that new religious and philosophical theories could be 
fi'eely propounded. Not even the sovereign could 
escape from openly expressed criticism. Then, again, he 
found that exemption of certain classes from taxation — 
that curse of ancient France — did not exist in England. 
All that is implied in the terms Constitutional freedom, 
liberty of the Press and of the subject, equality of taxation, 
mixture of ranks, nobility of labour, came more or less as 
a revelation to Voltaire. 

Till 1729 Voltaire lived almost entirely in England. 
A very interesting account of his residence here, and an 
estimate of Bolingbroke's influence on his writings is to 
be found in oMr. Churton Collins' essay on Voltaire in 
England. After the publication of the Henriade he began, 
at the instigation of Bolingbroke, the Tragedy of Brutus^ 

o 2 



196 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

which, when completed, he dedicated to that statesman. 
He was at the same time working at his history of Charles 
XII., and collecting materials for his history of Louis XIY. 
But, while producing, he was busy accumulating with a 
zest that is simply astounding. He plunged into the 
study of all branches of English literature ; poetry, 
history, theology, science, and philosophy. He read 
Shakespeare, Milton, and Dryden most carefully. His 
admiration for Pope's poetry was very great, and he 
considered Addison's Cato a fine production. The works 
of "Waller, Prior, Congreve, Wycherley, Yanbrugh, and 
Rochester were all devoured, and he took an especial 
interest in Hudihras, so seldom read in the nineteenth 
century. He had unusual advantages for obtaining 
special information on English Constitutional history, and 
facts for his histories of the Great French and Swedish 
Monarchs. Though he apparently made Dawley his head- 
quarters, he also stayed with Peterborough, and Bubb 
Doddington. At one or other of the houses of his friends 
he made the acquaintance of Swift, and of Congreve, of Gay, 
and of Young ; with the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough 
he discussed Louis XIY. and Charles XII. 

Most of his views on the political condition of England, 
on its institutions, and on the spirit of its laws are largely 
affected by the opinions of Bolingbroke, who held, during 
the period of his residence at Dawley, that a corrupt 
oligarchy was transforming the old free English institu- 
tions into a government, the aim of which was to advance 
party at the expense of national interests. Hence Boling- 
broke's complaints about the decadence of the spirit 
of liberty misled Yoltaire, who in consequence, failed 
to understand the real character of the Revolution 
of 1688. His observations on English political life, 
contained in his Leiters on the English, written before he 



BOLINGBBOKE'S LITEBARY FBIENDSHIPS. 197 

left England, presented such a contrast to the state of 
things existing in France, that they were ordered to be 
burnt in 1734. It is probably owing to Bolingbroke's in- 
fluence that they are wanting in any adequate account of 
our political liberties, and entirely fail to show that the 
author had grasped the importance of the English free 
Constitutional forms. 

In Voltaire's religious and philosophic studies the in- 
fluence which Bolmgbroke had already exercised at La 
Source was developed and largely amplified. From 
Bolingbroke Voltaire had derived the rationalistic spirit. 
It was at La Source that Bolingbroke finished his Letters 
to M. de Bouilly ; he was also busy writing the Bf-flec- 
tions on Innate Moral Principles while Voltaire was his 
guest. When they ^ again met at Dawley the seed 
already sown w^as beginning to bear fruit, and Voltaire 
found frequent opportunities of continuing his discussions. 
In England the opinions of the Deists were being 
much canvassed, and Bolingbroke was a Deist. " It is 
not too much to say*," writes Mr. John Morley, " that 
Bolingbroke was the direct progenitor of Voltaire's 
opinions in religion." Voltaire, who had read Locke, 
now studied the Deistical controversy which was raging, 
and read the works of such men as Toland and Collins, 
Shaftesbury, and Chubb. From them, through, as it were, 
the medium of Bolingbroke, Voltaire gradually formed 
his religious philosophy. These studies he continued in 
France in after years, and throughout his writings, which 
so profoundly affected the thought of Europe and to 
some extent the political action of France, the influence 
of Bolingbroke can be constantly discerned. 

As w^e study with intense interest the literature and 
politics in Bolingbroke's days, we are tempted to look 
back to the times of Lorenzo de Medici, under whose 



198 EENUYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

sway Florentine society, like English society under Queen 
Anne and George I., was largely affected by politics and 
literature. In Florence, as in England, men delighted 
in literary and philosophical conversation. At Dawley, 
and Twickenham just as in the Ruccellai Gardens, men 
met together in social clubs, which often had a political 
and philosophical character. The death of Lorenzo 
heralded the enslavement of Italy ; even before Boling- 
broke's death, the tendencies of the age had shrivelled up 
the literary aspirations, and with them had brought to an 
end the literary friendships of one of the most interesting 
periods of English literary history. 



( 199 ) 



CHAPTER X. 

BOLINGBROKE'S POLITICAL, PHILOSOPHICAL, AND 
THEOLOGICAL OPINIONS. 

Note on Lis political writings — Charge of inconsistency — His political 
aims in Anne's reign — His short period of Jacobitism — His 
political theories when opposing Walpole — The Dissertation on 
Parties — His reconstruction of Toryism — The Patriot King — 
Its effect on the policy of George III. and on the future of 
Toryism — Bolingbroke a democratic Tory— Lord Beaconsfield's 
opinion as to the value of his services to the Tory party — Boling- 
broke's philosophical and religious opinions — His writings — TJieir 
uncritical and uniiistorical character— Opinion of Lechler — The 
principles of the Deistic writers well illustrated from Bolingbroke's 
writings — Contempt for all dogmatic theologians — Importance of 
reason — Memory — Influence of the rationalistic point of view 
upon psychology — Bolingbroke's treatment of ethics and tlieology 
— His political theory. 

The political opinions of Bolingbroke are of little 
permanent value, being for the most part written in the 
heat of exciting })arty struggles. To two classes of 
persons his writings appeal. The admirer of eloquent 
expression and of splendid diction will read Bolingbroke's 
writings. He will find there the inexhaustible resources 
of the English language ; he will learn how varied, how 
flexible, how dignified it becomes in the hand of a master. 
He will find there the perfection of English prose : he 
will appreciate the undefinable influence of style. The 
historical student will find in his political writings 



200 EENBYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

the explanations of much that would otherwise be inex- . 
pli cable.* 

Bolingbroke, it must never be forgotten, always threw 
himself heart and soul into the questions which were 
inmiediately pressing for solution. It has been well said 
of him that he was " a consummate master of political 
strategy, as well as a great Constitutional moralist" 
(BoUnghrohe, by Harrop, p. 25). As soon as fresh 
problems appeared or a fresh development in politics 
took place, he at once boldly examined the situation 

* Bolingbroke's political opinions are to be gathered from : — 

(1) Id is political correspondence during the time he was Secretary 

of State, which, is our principal guide to the policy of the 
Ministry daring the negotiations of the Peace of Utrecht. 

(2) His contributions to The Craftsman — ^the principal of which in 

their collected form are known as Bemarhs on the History 
of England and the Dissertation on Parties — are most 
valuable aids to our knowledge of the domestic politics of 
the day. 

(3) A variety of dissertations and essays, partly purely historical, 

partly merely political. 
Of the historical dissertations, the Letter to Sir William Wyndliam, 
written in 1717, but not published till 1753, is perhaps the most cele- 
brated. In most points the statements are trustworthy, and it forms a 
very interesting chapter of history. Next in importance come the letters 
on The Study of History, of which the first five point out that history 
should be studied phiiosophically ; the sixth and seventh give a 
summary -of the course of English history in the sixteenth and 
seventeenth, and early years of tlie eighteenth centuries ; the eighth is 
a defence of the Peace of Utrecht. In 1749 he wrote the dissertation 
on the State of Parties at the Accession of George I. The essays in 
which he deals more especially with political theory are : The Letters 
on the Spirit of Patriotism, The Patriot King, and The Dissertation on 
Parties. Of these, the influence of The Patriot King, which was 
published in 1749, was immense on that and the next generation. 
All Bolingbroke's writings mentioned in this chapter are to he found 
in his collected works, and all references are to the 1809 edition, in 
eight volumes. 

(4) A groat number of letters, of which the most important are 
to be found in the Marchmont Papers. 



BOLINGBBOKWS OPINIONS. 201 

and came forward witli a programme, without apparently 
any regard for consistency. He had a wonderful 
knack of adapting himself to fresh circumstances, 
and, with the keen eye of a man accustomed to move 
behind the scenes of political life, of choosing the right 
watchword by which a defeated party might be rallied. 
It is often pointed out how the policy of a coalition 
against Walpole was directly opposed to his policy of 
Tory consolidation under Anne. Hence he is usually 
accused of inconsistency and insincerity. Such charges 
show a want of knowledge of the character and tendency 
of the political movements under Anne and her two 
successors. 

During the last four years of Anne's reign, Boling- 
broke certainly employed all his efforts, in opposi- 
tion to Oxford, who like Marlborough loved divided 
administrations, to make the lines between parties as 
clear as possible, and to form a strong united Tory 
Ministry. To establish the Government on a Tory basis 
was an intelligible policy. The overthrow of the Whig 
influence was to be accomplished by means of the 
authority of the Queen, supported by the will of the 
people. Coalitions, the object of Oxford's policy, must 
be discarded for ever. No terms were to be made 
with political opponents. By a policy of proscription 
and exclusion, that is, by a series of Acts brought 
forward and carried in a constitutional manner, all the 
governing power was to be placed in the hands of the 
High Church party. The majority of the nation was 
decidedly Tory, and the nation must be appealed to. 
Swift held similar views, and TJie Conduct of the Allies 
marks tlie first definite attempt in English political life to 
appeal to public opinion. That this policy was primarily 
in the interest of the Church and the landed gentry is not 



202 EENBT ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

to be deDied ; tliat the result would have been to 
virtually make the Revolution of 1688 useless, by placing 
the Government in the hands of a privileged class 
strongly opposed to the political and ecclesiastical ideas 
of the Revolution, and exercising power for its own 
benefit, is perfectly true. The consolidation of Parlia- 
mentary Government, the rights of civil and religious 
liberty, in a word, the great political achievements of the 
Whigs narrowly escaped destruction during the last years 
of Anne's reign, and that v^ith the full acquiescence of a 
laroe majority of the electors. In his Letter to Sir 
William Wyndham his political theories during these 
years are clearly described. 

After his exile, which included a desperate attempt 
to restore Jacobitism, he entered upon a new struggle 
under fresh circumstances. He was again opposed to 
the Whigs, who now, supported by the Sovereign and 
headed by a sagacious Minister, governed the country. 
He accordingly devoted himself to the difficult task 
of making the Hanoverian Tories and Jacobites recog- 
nise the existing dynasty, and of persuading the Dis- 
contented Whigs that their former opponents had given 
up their Jacobite doctrines. Walpole was firmly esta- 
blished in power, and was carrying out in the interest of 
his followers that policy of proscription and exclusion for- 
merly advocated by Bolingbroke. While engaged in the 
difficult task of conciliating the Malcontent Whigs Boling- 
broke professed himself a warm advocate of the Revolu- 
tion principles, but deprecated the system of Government 
by party, and the substitution of a united Cabinet for the 
ancient Royal Council. He thus threw aside his former 
opinions, his ancient belief in the existence of strong party 
divisions ; in their stead he advocated a Coalition. In 
his Dissertation on Parties he points out that the old 



BOLINGBEOKKS OPINIONS. 203 

political divisions have lost their meaning, that the old 
" associations of ideas " are broken, that new combinations 
had forced themselves into notice ; 

" that it would be as absurd to impute to the Tories the principles 
which were laid to their charge formerly as it would be to ascribe to 
the projector (Walpole) and his faction the name of Whigs, while they 
daily forfeit that character by their actions " (vol. iii. p. 39). 

The Revolution Settlement is nowsecm'e,the newdynast]> 
is generally recognised. Bat a fresh danger has arisen. 
"King William defended us from Popery and slavery," after 
the Revolution had saved us from the attempt of James to 
increase his prerogatives. The object of the Revolution 
was plainly designated to restore and secure our Govern- 
ment, ecclesiastical and civil, on true foundations (vol. iii, 
p. 171). But certain defects in our constitution not 
noticed in 1688-9 have become danoferous. The desiofn 
of the Revolution could not be accomplished unless '^ the 
freedom of elections and the frequency, integrity, and 
independence of Parliaments were sufficiently provided 
fgr" (vol. iii. p. 177). Walpole and his faction, by 
discrediting the Tories, keep themselves in power. This 
perpetuated power leads to corruption. To such an 
extent had corruption grown, that the "independency of 
Parliament, in which the essence of our constitution, and 
by consequence of our liberty, consists, seems to be in 
great, not to say in imminent, danger of being lost" 
(vol. iii. p. 277). 

With these " high sentiments of constitutional morality " 
in his pamphlets, Bolingbroke appealed to the conservative 
instincts of the people against dangerous and pernicious 
innovations. In a very striking letter to Lord Polwarth 
in July, 1739, after \Yalpole had been in office nearly 
twenty years, he despaired of saving the independence 
of Parliament. An Administration on what he calls a 



204 HENBYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

national basis would alone restore that independence : for 
then the people would be able to insist on their right 
'' to preserve that fundamental principle of their free con- 
stitution of Government " {Marclimont Pa]oers, vol. ii. 
p. 191). 

It is obvious to us that in this line of argument 
Bolingbroke, either wilfully or unconsciously, entirely 
mistook the real character of the Revolution oflB88. 
That event transferred the centre of the governing power 
from the King to the House of Commons, and, though 
many evils, such as Parliamentary corruption, sprang 
into being, they were by no means the necessary accom- 
paniments of the growth of the system of Government by 
Party. That system, though disliked by Bolingbroke, 
was the inevitable result of the victory of the repre- 
sentative over the monarchical principle. He failed to 
see that Party is the foundation of Parliamentary Govern- 
ment. Neither did he comprehend that the system of 
Party Government tended to put an end to the politicnl 
perfidy so characteristic of statesmen in the reigns of 
William III. and Anne. He also, of course, paid no 
heed to the fact that Walpole's system of protecting the 
trading and Nonconformist classes was the only means by 
which the principles of the Revolution could be preserved 
in face of the sullen opposition of the majority of the 

nation. 

As lontr as Bolingbroke lived, he could not break 
through the Whig phalanx. With all their faults, 
England owes a debt of gratitude to the great Whig 
families. Their administrative powers were admirable ; 
they had the interest of the country at heart; they 
established the Hanoverian dynasty firmly on the throne ; 
under them, the elder Pitt carried on a successful war, 
resultino- in the establishment of England's Empire ; the 



BOLINGBBOKE'S OPINIONS. 205 

country had never been so uniformly prosperous, the 
division between rich and poor had never been so slight 
as during the reigns of the first two Georges, when the 
Revolution families governed. But by George Ill.'s 
accession the new professional politician, a Whig parasite, 
belonging to a, class admirably described by Sir George 
Trevelyan in his Early History of Charles James Fox, 
had entered upon the Whig heritage. The Whig party, 
undermined by corruption, the result of long tenure of 
power, had split into sections. George III.'s policy was 
not only to put into practice the views of Bolingbroke as 
expressed in the Dissertation on Parties, and in his 
letter to Polwarth, and to preserve the Constitution by 
establishing a Government independent of party, on a 
natural basis. He .wished to be a king in reality, not 
merely in name ; a patriot king after the pattern drawn 
by Bolingbroke. 

We have seen in a former chapter how it came to 
pass that Bolingbroke's political ideas, described above, 
were never put into force during his lifetime. His 
second, and this time self-imposed exile, in 1735 
marks the failure of the third phase of his political 
ideas. He had first, between 1710 and 1714, attempted, 
without abolishing the Act of Settlement, to replace the- 
Tory party in that position of supremacy which it enjoyed 
at the time of the Revolution of 1688 ; he had secondly, in 
1715, aided in an unsuccessful attempt to restore Jacobitism 
and overthrow^ the Act of Settlement. He had, thirdly, 
failed, after a gallant effort, to abolish party distinction 
by means of a coalition of all parties. He now, after having 
broken wath Pulteney and the Discontented Whigs, entered 
upon the fourth phase of his political ideas, adopted in 
some respects a new political theory, and attempted to re- 
construct Toryism on the' basis of patriotism. The Patriot 



206 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBROKE. 

King expresses this theory, and, on its publication in 1749, 
became widely known. It appeals to all who hate the 
name of party and dislike the existence of party government. 
According to the system of government sketched out in this 
treatise, " a limited monarchy is the best of governments," 
and a hereditary monarchy of monarchies. " The good of 
the people is the ultimate and true end of Government," 
and " the greatest good of a people is their liberty." The 
best way to provide for the continuance of that liberty is 
by securing the accession of a patriot king, who will not 
be a sovereign by divine right, nor the mere figure-head 
of a Government directed by an oligarchy. He will be a 
constitutional sovereign, whose power is limited by his 
consent to exercise that pov^'er subject to public opinion 
expressed in a free Parliament. Under him corruption 
will cease, for a patriot king has no reason to be corrupt. 

" He is the most powerful of all reformers, for lie is himself a sort 
of standing miracle so rarely seen, and so little understood, that the 
sure effects of his appearance will be adiniration and. love in every 
honest breast, confusion and terror to every guilty conscience, but 
submission and resignation in all " (vol. iv. p. 273). 

In writing The Patriot King, Bolingbroke was ad- 
vancing political theories to some extent similar to 
those laid down in the Dissertation on Parties. His 
immediate object at the time was to establish his position 
with Frederick, the Prince of Wales, and to checkmate 
Pulteney and his followers, who had just wrecked his 
scheme of a Coalition. That the viev/s expressed in The 
Patriot King are absurd hardly needs demonstration. 
Where was the king to be found who would act the part 
described ? Even supposing that one prince of ability 
conformed to the requirements set forth in this treatise, 
what guarantee would there be that his successors would 
follow in his footsteps? Was it really likely that cor- 



BOLINGBBOKWS OPINIONS. 207 

ruption and party spirit would disappear before this magic 
centre ? Nor can Bolingbroke explain satisfactorily the 
steps in the transformation of Parliamentary Government 
into a national council existing without parties. In spite of 
all these absurdities the fact remains that this famous essay 
became a real force in political life, a mighty lever which 
largely contributed to the ruin of the Venetian oligarchy. 
By its aid George III. smote the Whigs hip and thigh, 
and for ten years, without, indeed, rising to the sublime 
height of The Patriot King, carried out in some points 
the principles laid down in that famous treatise. 

Thus it came about that the object at which Boling- 
broke had aimed all his life and by various methods, 
was attained by his means after his death. The Patriot 
King very largely aided in the reconstruction of that Tory 
party which found leaders in Bute, North, and the 
younger Pitt. In a critical estimate of the causes of the 
successful assertion by the Tories of their right to a share 
in the Government of the country in the reign of George 
III., The Patriot King occupies with regard to public 
opinion a position similar to that of The Conduct of the 
Allies. In each case the popular feeling which had already 
declared itself was powerfully fostered and accelerated by 
these respective treatises. In 1710 the people were, for 
several well-known reasons, weary of the Whig Govern- 
ment, and Swift's writings not only strengthened them in 
their desire to end the war, but also expressed what was the 
general view. On George III.'s accession Parliament 
had ceased to represent the people, and had becomiC 
factious and corrupt. The Patriot King became the 
watchword for the literary class, who never had any 
sympathy with Walpole's system of Government, for the 
Tories, who wished after their long exclusion from the 
Government to again direct affairs, for Whigs like Pitt, 



208 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKB. 

who hated the party system, and for Greorge III., who 
was determined to free himself from the thraldom of the 
Whig families. 

The strength of the Whig position lay in this, that they 
had made the executive practically responsible to Parlia- 
ment. But, while securing in great measure the direction 
of affairs, they had endeavoured to make their position 
safe by controlling the members of Parliament, and 
the elections to Parhament, by means of corruption. 
They failed to see the advantage of a Parliament 
responsible to the people. They were anxious to govera 
in the interest of the nation, but they did not permit the 
nation to exercise any contiol over, or to possess any 
influence in, Parliament. The abuses to which such a 
system was liable were obvious, and these were violently 
attacked by Bolingbroke in the palmy days of Whig 
ascendancy. The publication of The Patriot King found 
Walpole's system in a state of decay, and Parliament the 
battle-g^round of various small bodies of self-seekinor 
politicians. Is it to be wondered at if Tories like 
Johnson despised Whiggism, which under '' the Pelhams 
was no better than the politics of stock-jobbers, and the 
religion of infidels," and believed that a Prince who 
pursued the "interest of his people could not fail of 
Parliamentary concurrence." In spite, then, of many 
manifest absurdities, The Patriot King was iramed"ately 
popular because it struck a national chord, and expressed 
a wide-spread feeling of discontent. 

We have lastly to summarise Bolingbroke's political 
views, and to consider shortly the direct bearing of his 
political theories on the future of the Tory party. We 
have seen the four phases through which his political 
opinions passed. In each phase he adapted his views to 
a special contingency ; but one principle runs throughout 



BOLINGBllOKWS OPINIONS. 209 

his political writings, the principle, namely, of strengthening 
the Crown by popular safeguards. Bolingbroke was 
never a Tory in the sense that Rochester, or Bute, or 
North, or Eldon were Tories. The Toryism of his day 
was largely tinged with Jacobitism, and, even if opposed 
to the return of the Pretender, never shook itself quite 
clear from divine right, passive obedience, and the like. 
Bolingbroke w^as always ahead of his party. In his first 
Parliament he had seen Harley, who had no sympathy 
with high monarchical doctrines, compel the Tory party to 
pass the Act of Settlement and the Abjuration Bill. He 
never seems to have entirely discarded this popular 
form of Toryism then adopted by Harley ; he ridiculed 
divine right ; he always hated a Venetian oligarchy, 
and, in opposition to Walpole's system, pressed for the 
greater independence of the House of Commons. The 
Patriot King was to be subjected to public opinion as 
manifested in a free territorial Parliament of landlords 
chosen by widest suffrage. 

In fact, there w^as a good deal of the democratic Tory 
about Bolingbroke. " Good government depends, under 
our constitution, on the unity of interest between the King 
and his subjects," he had WTJtten some years before the 
appearance of The Patriot King, and, in doing so, had 
appealed to a sentiment which w^as destined to become 
a mighty force after his own death. George III., in 
establishing the powder of the Crown against Parliament 
and in reducing his ministers to the position of mere 
agents and advisers, was acting as much in harmony with 
the wish of the people as with the political theories of 
Bolingbroke. After the American War the Whigs again 
came into power, but they had not learnt wisdom during 
adversity. Dreading the influence of the Crown and 
ignoring the popular feelings, they ruined themselves for 

P 



210 EENBY ST, JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

some fifty years by their fatal Coalition with Lord North. 
Pitt's policy of appealing- from a selfish oligarchy to the 
mass of the voters and of establishing, by means of a 
beneficent policy, good relations between the Crown and 
the people, was a practical expression of Bolingbroke's. 
political opinions. 

The success of Bolingbroke's reconstruction of Toryism 
was well described by Lord Beaconsfield in 1835 : — 

" He eradicated from Toryism all their absurd and odious doctrines 
which Toryism had adventitiously adopted, clearly developed its 
essential and permanent character, discarded jure divino, demolished 
passive obedience, threw to the winds the doctrine of non-resistance, 
placed the abolition of James, and the accession of George on tlieir 
right bases, and, in the complete reorganisation of the public mind, 
laid the foundation for the future accession of the Tory party to 
power, and to that popular and triumphant career which must ever 
await the policy of an administration inspired by the spirit of our free 
and ancient institutions." 

The philosophical and religious opinions of Lord 
Bolingbroke are now of comparatively little importance, 
either in the history of philosophy and theology or in the 
history of the life of their author. They are to be found 
in the last three volumes of Mallet's edition of his works. 
The Essays, in which they are embodied, are addressed 
to Alexander Pope, and were all published for the first 
time after Bolingbroke's death. There are four Essays 
so addressed : Concerning the Nature , Extent^ and 
Beality of Human Knowledge ; On the Folly and 
Presumption of Philosophers; On the Bise and Progress 
of Monotheism ; and On Authority in matters of Beligion. 
Besides these, there is a letter occasioned by reading one 
of Archbishop Tillotson's Sermons, and a series of 
Fragments or Minutes of Essays, dealing with similar 
subjects, in a somewhat less connected form. As these 



BOLINGBBOKE'S OPINIONS. 211 

works were published posthumously, their actual date has 
to be determined inferentially. In the introduction to 
the first Essay, the following statement occurs : — " You 
have begun your Ethic Epistles in a masterly manner " 
(vol. V. p. 72, ed. 1809), The first instalment of the 
Moral Essays came out in 1730 — that to the Earl of 
Burlington. To this, allusion seems to be made in 
Bolingbroke's Introductory Essay. The letters to Pope 
cannot, therefore, have been written earlier than 1731. 
They were most probably composed before their author 
retired to France in 1735, since he describes himself 
(p. 77, op. cit.) as " once more engaged in the service 
of my country." They are very free in style. They 
pretend to no seriousness or philosophic exactness. They 
follow no very settled plan, but deal with a host of 
subjects promiscuously, just as they arose in the mind. 
They show all the author's wealth of illustration, the 
extent to which he had dabbled in learning of various 
kinds, and they are by no means deficient in rhetorical 
point and cleverness. But there is nothing more to be 
said for them. They are wholly uncritical, wholly one- 
sided, wholly unhistorical. They abound in repetitions, 
contradictions, vehement and unbridle 1 invective. They 
are actuated throughout by the strongest possible bias, 
and, as we said above, they are valueless from the point 
of view of the history of philosophy or theology. It has 
been remarked by Lechler {Gescli. d. -Eng, Deismus, 
p. 369) that there is a certain similarity between Boling- 
broke and Chubb. Both are Deists, and both stand 
outside the learned classes of their day. Both, therefore, 
represent the influence of the speculations of the learned 
upon the outer world : Chubb upon the industrial section, 
Bolingbroke, upon the aristocratic section of it. Hence 
we shall be disappointed if we expect anvthing in Boling- 

' P 2 



212 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

broke's writings bat a tolerably able presentation of the 
current Deistic thought. 

It is not easy to give a connected account of the 
opinions embodied in these incoherent and ill-arranged 
Essays. Perhaps the clearest and best plan will be to 
illustrate from them the principles which were most 
widely operative in the Deistic writers at the time. It 
will be remembered that Deism was one result of the 
effort to substitute Reason for Authority as the ultimate 
source of truth. The Church had claimed to define not 
only matters of faith, but also, to a certain extent, 
questions of philosophy also. But the Reformation had 
shattered its authority in England. There remained, 
therefore, two possibilities open : pure Individualism, 
according to which each would determine his faith and 
his philosophy for himself, without reference to any one ; 
and Rationalism, which, while retaining the right of 
private judgment, fell back upon the faculty of reason 
for justification, presumably the same in all men. There 
was, therefore, a strong bias against all those positive 
additions to religion or to law which were not universal, 
but prevailed at particular times and places. Dogmas 
which went beyond what was called the Religion of 
Nature, and enactments which were superadded to the 
Law of Nature, came alike into disfavour. On all sides 
there was a clamour to return to primitive simplicity, to 
throw off the outgrowths upon the old faith and policy, 
and live again upon primeval lines. The appearance of 
dogmatic and metaphysical theology, and the promulga- 
tion of positive law were largely attributed to priestcraft 
and the cunning of the civil ruler. In defiance of the 
actual facts, it was maintained by many, by Bolingbroke 
among the number, that all the dogmatic theologians, 
from St. Paul down wards, were either madmen or knaves. 



BOLINGBBOKE'S OPINIONS, 213 

The claims of theology were thus easily settled. But 
there was this modification in the case of lasv. Some 
positive enactments were absolutely necessary, though 
many might be assigned to the same motives as dogmatic 
Christianity. The State, therefore, and the State alone, 
was to fix these, their number and their import. To this 
function of defining the limits of positive law was 
naturally added that of fixing any positive form of 
religion, if it should be thought desirable. It might 
appear that it was to the advantage of a given State to 
make some uniform profession of religion : and so 
religion, lilve law, obtained from the State a precarious 
privilege to define itself, to a greater extent than would 
liave been possible, if the point of view of Reason had 
been strictly maintained. These general principles seem 
to determine the thought of the time in its various stages. 
Let us see how they appear in Bolingbroke. 

First, then, reason — the reason of the individual — is 
the final judge in all causes, as well ecclesiastical as civil. 
It is "a gift of God, which is common to the whole 
species " (vol. v. p. 72). " He who examines on such 
principles as these, which are conformable to truth and 
reason, may lay aside at once the immense volumes of 
fathers and councils ; of schoolmen, casuists, and contro- 
versial writers, which have perplexed the world so long " 
(ibid. p. 106). "I rely on the authority of my cook 
when I eat my soup ; on the authority of my apothecary 
when I take a dose of rhubarb ; on that of Graham when 
I buy my watch ; on that of Sir Isaac Newton when I 
believe in the doctrine of gravitation, because I am neither 
cook, apothecary, watchmaker, nor mathematician. But I 
am a rational creature, and am therefore obliged to jud"-e 
for myself in all those cases where reason alone is the 
judge; the judge of the thing itself; for, even in the 



214 EENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

others, reason is the judge of the authority " (vol. vi, 
p. 272). Many other passages might be quoted, but these 
will probably be enough to show the primary position 
adopted by Bolingbroke. 

If we ask for a further definition of the characteristics of 
rational knowledge, we find ourselves involved in some con- 
fusion. All human knowledge is a posteriori. " Human 
knowledge is not only posterior to the human system, but 
the very first elements of it are ideas which we perceive im- 
pressed by outward objects on our minds " (vol. v. p. 124). 
" It is such knowledge as we are fitted, by the organisa- 
tion of our bodies and the constitution of our minds to 
acquire. ... It is knowledge for us. It is, in one wor J, 
human, and, relatively to us, when it is rightly pursued, 
real knowledge" (ibid. pp. 126-7). "The first ideas 
with which the mind is furnished are received from without, 
and are caused by such sensations as the pressure of 
external objects excites in us, according to laws of passion 
and action which the Creator has established" (ibid. 
p. 123). What these laws are, and how they work, we do 
not and cannot know. Perception is passive, and is 
common to us with the animal kind. When excited by 
the operation of external objects, " the activity of the 
soul commences, and another source of original ideas is 
opened; for then we acquire ideas from, and by the 
operation of, our minds " (ibid. p. 135). At the same 
time knowledge is closely limited. *' Since simple ideas 
are the foundation of human knowledge, this knowledge 
can neither be extended wider, nor elevated higher, than 
in a certain proportion to them" (ibid. p. 137). This, 
knowledge " goes no further than particular experiment, 
and, as we attempt to make it general, we make it 
precarious. The reason is plain. It is a knowledge of 
particular efiects, that have no connection nor dependency 



BOLINGBMOKWS OPINIONS. 215 

one on another, even when they, or, more properly, the 
powers that produce them, are united in the same 
substance ; and of these powers, considered as causes, and 
not in their effects, we have no means of attaining any 
knowledge at all " (ibid. p. 171). " General ideas are 
framed by the ' innate powers ' of the mind, but are not 
* taken with exactness from the nature of things on many 
occasions'" .... "Ideas or notions are ill abstracted 
first, and ill compared afterwards " (ibid. p. 127). The 
method of science is inductive (ibid. p. 168), and leads 
only to insecure results. Hypotheses may be used 
sparingly, but it is hopeless to make them, in all cases of 
real ignorance. " Is it reasonable, when we cannot draw, 
from observation and experiment, such conclusions as may 
be safe foundations on which to proceed by the synthetic 
method in the pursuit of truth, to assume certain principles 
.... which have * been never proved, nor perhaps 
suggested by the phenomena, in hopes that they may l3e 
so afterwards " (ibid. p. 171). In order to the acquisition 
of this precarious knowiedge, the mind is furnished with 
the two faculties of memory and association. As to 
memory, Bolingbroke offers no explanation. He rejects 
that offered by Descartes, and maintains that " the only 
reasonable method we can take is to be content to kno\s 
intuitively, and by inward observation, not the cause, but 
the effects of memory, and the use of it in the intellectual 
system " (ibid. p. 139). The faculty of composition and of 
comparison of our ideas comes next, and is the result of 
the operation of Nature upon us. " Nature has united in 
distinct substances, as we commonly speak, various com- 
binations of those qualities, each of which causes in us the 
sensation it is appropriated to cause, and our organs are 
fitted to receive ; so that several, being thus combined a,nd 
making their impression together, may be said to cause a 



216 EENBTST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

complex sensation " (ibid. p. 142). " Tlie complex idea 
we have of every substance is nothing more than a com- 
bination of several sensible ideas, which determine the 
apparent nature of it to us " (ibid. p. 14-1). Of all the 
ideas which the mind is capable of forming-, its whole 
system of knowledge is composed : '' and in the process of 
it, from first to last, we are assisted, directly or indirectly, 
by the lessons of nature " (ibid. p. 145). 

The influence of the rationalistic point of view upon 
psychology is very strongly marked here. Reason is 
paramount, but at the same time would seem to be the 
roughest and most uninstructed form of common sense. 
The utterances of the sensational faculties are just taken 
as they are ; no criticism is applied to them, and they are 
run together under various heads, without any attempt at 
explanation. This is Bolingbroke's own view of rational 
procedure. In virtue of it he dissents from Locke, whom 
he, for the most part, follows implicitly. The difference 
arises over the use of the word abstraction. " There is," 
says Bolingbroke, '' a very practicable operation of the 
mind, by which we are said to abstract ideas, and by 
which we do in effect generalise them in a certain manner, 
and to a certain degree, by substituting one as repre- 
sentation of many. There is another — by which some 
philosophers have made themselves and others believe 
that they abstract, from a multitude of particular ideas, 
the idea of one general nature or essence, which is all of 
them, and none of them " (vol. vii. p. 298). This general 
idea of a thing Locke had called its nominal essence. 
"To talk of nominal essences and the abstraction of such 
comes too near the gibberish of the schools about genera 
and species ; the former method of abstracting or genera- 
lising our ideas is the universal practice of mankind, the 
latter is purely imaginary " (vol. vii. p. 299). Such 



BOLINGBROKE'S OPINIONS. 217 

violent limitation of the operation of reason to the mental 
furnilyre with which every man, however ignorant or 
uneducated, is necessarily supplied, makes him entirely 
independent of, and incapable of entering into, any of the 
questions which have exercised philosophers in the past. 
They are survivals from the school of Plato, "who 
poisoned the very source of all real knowledge," of the 
" pompous jargon " of Aristotle, and others like him. 
They are maintained by men like Leibnitz, " one of the 
vainest and most chimerical men that ever got a name in 
philosophy." It would be interesting to collect the 
various abusive expressions bestowed by our author on 
philosophers ; but it would be quite impossible in a short 
notice, thej would cover far too many pages. 

As Bolingbroke has treated psychology "rationally," 
so he proceeds to treat ethics and theology. "The 
great principles of moral truth are as much founded in 
the nature of things as those of mathematical truth " (vol. 
vii. p. 34:')) Ma,n is so constituted as to possess selfish 
and benevolent impulses from the first. The study of 
morality next to that of natural philosophy is, of all 
pursuits, that one which most deserves the application of 
the human mind. For " the will of God, in the constitu- 
tion of our moral system, is the object of one; His 
infinite wisdom and power, that are manifested in the 
natural system of the universe, are the object of the other " 
(vol. V. p. 187). At the same time, there is no such thing 
as moral science properly so called. " Moral ideas and 
notions, of w^hich no ' sensuous ' copies can be made,, 
which are held together in the mind, with the names 
assigned to them, by nothing but the retentive powers of 
the mind, and which can be signified by nothing but 
sounds that bear no resemblance to them, must fluctuate 
and vary, beget all the conjusion, spread all the obscurity, 



218 HENBYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE- 

and give occasion to all the fraud that I have mentioned " 
(vol. V. p. 217). As before, we were told that all our 
knowledge is closely limited to particulars, so here we 
are forbidden to attempt anything like a connected 
system of ethical principles. We shall know a posteriori, 
by experience of moral facts, what are the moral 
principles of our own age and country. Throughout the 
index of right and wrong, actions will be the advantage 
and disadvantage accruing from them (cf Fragments and 
Minutes, No. II.). 

On the subjects of religion and politics we may be very 
brief. Eeligion seems to have arisen (according to Boling- 
broke) out of the curiosity of men to know the causes 
of phenomena which met their senses. They explain 
them as the actions of various beings very like themselves 
in nature, only much more powerful. Being wholly 
without the idea of secondary causes, they invent as many 
gods as they require. The tirst great principle of natural 
religion^ though probably not the primitive faith of 
mankind (vol. vi. p. 38), '' could not fail to be discovered 
as soon as some men began to contemplate themselves 
and all the objects that surrounded them " (vol. vi. p. 37). 
Not only is it so discoverable, it is actually demonstrable. 
The '^ demonstration " is given (vol. v. p. 123) : " Since 
there must have been something from eternity, because 
there is something now, the eternal Being must be an 
intelligent Being, because there is intelligence now ; and 
such a Being nmst exist necessarily, whether things have 
been always as they are or whether they have been made 
in time, because it is no more possible to conceive an 
infinite than a finite progression of effects without a cause. 
Thus the existence of God is demonstrated, and cavil 
against demonstration is impertinent." For the strenuous 
assertor of the a posteriori character of human knowledge 



BOLINGBBOKWS OPINIONS. 219 

this seems a very remarkable piece of argumeut. Of God, 
as thus demonstrated into existence, we know nothing 
whatever, save that He exists and has created the world 
(vol. V. p. 60). Still it is " both profane and injurious to 
true theism to assume the imm.ediate presence and action 
of the supreme Being in all the operations of corporal 
nature" (vol. vi. p. 91). He created the world, but in what 
sense or how, nobody knows. The knowledge of God is 
immediate and original in each of us, reason being the 
instrument by which we obtain it ; and he who " boasts a 
revelation superadded to reason to supply the defects of 
it,' is no less than mad " (vol. vi. pp. 170-1). Miracles 
are obviously impossible. If they had ever occurred, they 
must have carried the world into belief in Christ and His 
revelation ; " and yet, in fact, a universal submission of 
all those, who were witnesses of the signs and wonders that 
accompanied the publication of the Gospel, did not follow " 
(vol. vi. p. 284). The miracles are, therefore, false. 

The causes of the growth of sects between the apos- 
tolical age and this, are " to be found in the metaphysical 
madness of philosophers mixing with the enthusiasm of 
the first Christians, in the cabalistical practice of giving 
different senses to the same passages of Holy Writ, in the 
uncertainty of tradition, and in the use that a distinct 
order of men has made, in every Christian state, of these 
and other circumstances to acquire dominion over private 
consciences" (vol. vi. p. 432). Christ republished natural 
religion together with the sanction of eternal punishment, 
and theologians since the days of Paul have been occupied 
in falsifying Christ's message. It is worth noticing that 
in his opinions about Saint Paul (vol. vi. p. 259, &c.) Bohno-- 
broke anticipated in a way the views of Baur and his 
school. He represents Saint Paul as preaching a com- 
pletely new gospel, different from that of our Lord (who 



220 HENBYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 

was sent to tlie Jews only (vol. vi. p. 369, &c.) and of the 
earlier apostles, but he differs from the Tubingen school 
in that he describes it as a fatal deflection fi-om the truth. 

It now remains only to indicate Bolingbroke's political 
theory. " All societies," he writes, " were begun by 
instinct and improved by experience " (vol. vii. p. 408) 
They take their origin in those natural social conditions 
which are first seen in the family. " We are led to civil 
through natural society, and are fitted to be members of 
the one by having been members of the other. This is 
the case of every one in particular, and has been that of 
mankind collectively considered " (vol. vii. p. 413). 

The family, therefore, was the origin of the state. This 
point of view, of course, makes Bolingbroke look with dis- 
favour upon the speculations of Hobbes and Locke as to 
the state of nature. Such theories, he says, represent 
" mankind to themselves like a number of savage individuals 
out of all society in their natural state " (vol. vii. p. 433), and 
this is not historical or philosophically sound. So far the 
state is based on the law of nature. ''Nature begets 
natural law, natural law sociability, sociability union of 
societies by consent, and this union by consent the 
obligation of civil laws " (vol. vii. p. 376). Under this civil 
obligation, definite forms of religion are included : Erasmus^ 
Plato, Varro, and some others, distinguished very rightly, 
" between the regard due to religions already established, 
and the conduct to be held in the establishment of them." 
They " thought that things -evidently false might deserve 
an outward respect, when they are interwoven into a 
system of government." This outward respect every good 
citizen will show them in such a case, and they can claim 
no more in any. He will not propagate these errors, but 
he will be cautious how he propagates even truth in 
opposition to them (vol. v. p. 97). 



BOLINGBBOKE'S OPINIONS. 221 

Such, very briefly, is the philosophy of Lord Bolingbroke. 
In the short space allotted to this aspect of his life, it is 
entirely impossible to deal fully with his opinions. It 
might be interesting, if indeed it were worth while, to 
criticise elaborately the historical accounts of the progress 
of Christianity, &c., which are here passed by almost with- 
out mention, or it might be interesting to lay bare by 
means of analysis the sources from which he drew, and to 
trace the history of his philosophical terminology. But, 
after all, this would be treating him au grand serieux — 
treatment which he scarcely deserves; philosophy and 
theology owe him nothing. He simply presents rationalism 
in its crudest form as it had filtered into his mind from 
without. We cannot wonder that publication of his works 
caused no stir in the' learned world. We should have 
every reason to wonder if it had. 



222 HENBY ST. JOMN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE. 



CHAPTER XL 

CONCLUSION. 

Bolingbroke seldom judged fairly — Why this is so — ^Hatred of Whigs 
— ^Attacks on his private life — Severe criticism of his public 
career — The Treaty of Utrecht a great work, and carried out by 
the Whigs — Walpole's appreciation of Bolingbroke's foreign 
policy — The questions of England's non-intervention on the 
Continent, of the importance of the navy, of the value of the 
Colonies, treated of by Bolingbroke — Carries out Cromwell's policy 
— Unfair attitude of Johnson and Burke — The real value of 
Bolingbroke's writings — Popular view of his* character — Its 
absurdity — Summary of his work — The interest still taken in 
his life — His claim to the title of "Great." 

It is impossible to hope that the time has yet come when 
either Bolingbroke's statesmanship or his own character 
can be judged impartially. In the first place, the reigns 
of Queen Anne and of the first two Georges are too near 
our own times to allow us to regard without some party 
bias the motives of men who guided or influenced Eng- 
land's destinies less than two hundred years ago. When 
men wax warm over the lives and characters of Charles I. 
and'Cromwell, it is too much to expect calm criticism of 
so prominent a statesman as Bolingbroke. Then, again, 
owing to the peculiar circumstances in which he was 
placed, to the very unusual character of the political 
problems with which he had to deal, he incurred the 
resentment of a large number of his Tory followers. A 
party suffering under a serious defeat not unfrequently 



CONCLUSION, 223 

finds fault with its leaders, and during the reign of 
George I. and the greater part of that of George II. a 
large section of the Tories blamed Bolingbroke for their 
comparative powerlessness, and altogether failed to appre- 
ciate at their proper value the efforts he had made to 
place them in a position safe from the vicissitudes of party 
strug-o-les. 

Much adverse criticism has, too, been levelled at his 
memory in consequence of his adoption of the Deist 
position and of the publication of his rationalistic 
views. Probably his enemies, the Whigs, are mainly 
answerable for the bitter tone which has geaerally 
characterised the writings of historians and biographers 
of Bolingbroke. In the heat of conflict, the Jacobitism 
of a comparatively few Tories was magnified into a 
dangerous plot .with wide ramifications. Fortune 
favoured the Whigs after the accession of George, 
and party exigencies demanded that they should con- 
tinue to fasten on their opponents the stigma of Jacobitism. 
We know the result. The Tories remained hewers of 
wood and drawers of water for nearly half a century, and 
it is to this day well-nigh impossible to remove the 
general impression that Bolingbroke was throughout his 
career a firm adherent to the Jacobite cause. Boling- 
broke himself declares that he expected as a matter of 
course to be impeached and attainted by the Whigs : 
what he did not expect was to be treated with ingratitude 
by the Tories ; that ingratitude he characterised as " the 
last burst of the cloud," which has " gone near to over- 
whelm me." 

*' From our enemies," he says, " we expect evil treatment of every 
sort. "VVe are prepared for it; we are animated by it, and we 
sometimes triumph in it; but when our friends abandon us, when 
tbey wound us, and when they take to do this an occasion when we 



224 BENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE 

stand the most in need of their support; and have the best title to it, 
the firmest mind finds it hard to resist." 

But, though he regretted in his own day the attitude 
taken up towards him by a large section of that party in 
whose service he had. as he assures us, endeavoured to dis- 
tinguish himself " under the immediate weight of great 
discouragement and with the no very distant prospect of 
ffreat danofer,''' he was never careful to secure the favour- 
able opinion of posterity. To stand well in the eyes of 
future generations was no object of his. " As to the 
opinion of mankind in general, and the judgment which 
posterity will pass on these matters, I am under no great 
coiicern — simin cuique decus posteritas rependit.^^ 

His reputation as a statesman has been severely 
handled. The Peace of Utrecht is often styled shameful 
and disastrous. As that Treaty was Bolingbroke's master- 
piece, his enemies have certainly shown wisdom in their 
generation in attacking it. But the Peace of Utrecht was 
in its main features an admirable settlement of the many 
difficult and complicated questions which had arisen during 
the long war, and Stanhope, Walpole, and their fellow 
ministers, speedily showed a keen appreciation of the work of 
their rival by completing the pacification of Europe on 
the lines laid down by Bolingbroke. Walpole's system of 
Government, in fact, his whole policy at home and abroad, 
was based on the dynastic alliance between the Houses 
of Hanover and 13ourbon. The preservation of the 
Peace of Utrecht became the aim of English, French, and 
Dutch Ministers. The Quadruple Alliance, by which the 
House of Austria relinquished its pretensions to Spain, the 
fall of Alberoni, the Treaties of Nystadt, Seville, and 
the second Treaty of Vienna (1731) were all brought 
about with the object of continuing that system which 
had been formed by the exertions of the great Tory 



CONCLUSION. 225 

statesman. Walpole also clearly recognised the eco- 
nomical and commercial value to England of Bollng- 
broke's foreign policy. The Whig Minister's long 
tenure of power was in great measure caused by the 
determined manner in which he clung to the Tory Peace 
policy. By doing so he enabled England to make rapid 
industrial progress, to extend her commerce, and to enjoy 
some twenty years of peace and prosperity. It was only 
when he followed this policy too slavishly, when he failed 
to grasp the fact that new problems had arisen which 
required fresh remedies, that public opinion demanded his 
overthrow. 

The question of England's interference or non-interfer- 
ence in Continental affairs, and of the relative Importance 
of the army and navy to an insular power like Great 
Britain are still much-debated questions. Chatham and 
his great son, Canning, Lord Palmerston, and Lord 
Beaconsiield, all had definite views on these subjects. It 
would seem that the principles on which Bolingbroke 
acted are now beginning to receive universal acceptance. 
No part, however, of his foreign policy is more likely to be 
read with satisfaction than that which refers to the ex- 
pansion of England. He secured for England a firm 
footing in North America, from which vantage-ground 
she was destined to put into execution, in less than ten 
years after his death, by the hand of one of his young 
patriot friends, a scheme which he had himself devised 
and almost succeeded in carrying out. He was the first 
statesman who saw clearly the importance of checking 
the extension of the French power in Canada and of 
giving a powerful impetus to the Colonial interests of 
Great Britain. 

Though he failed to carry his commercial Treaty 
with France, he was successful in breaking through 



226 EENEY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

the Spanish monopoly of trade with South America. 
Cromwell had attempted in vain to penetrate the wall of 
religious fanaticism and commercial exclusiveness which 
closed the Spanish colonies to British trade ; it was 
reserved for a man whose conception of foreign policy 
was no less as clear, and whose determination was fully as 
stronsr as that of the Protector to effect an arrano^ement 
which for the first time allowed British trade, under certain 
conditions, with the Spanish colonies of South America. 
The verdict of history has now fully endorsed the wisdom 
and value of the Peace of Utrecht, — a value which, as wo 
have shown, was amply recognised by his great Whig 
rival. 

His writings have been violently and in many ways 
unfairly attacked. Dr. Johnson and Burke are in great 
measure answerable for the popular opinions still in vogue 
with regard to his works. Dr. Johnson accused him of 
cowardice with reference to the publications of his 
philosophical speculations. 

"Sir, he was a scoundrel and a coward: a scoundreJ, for charging 
a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a coward, because he had 
not resolution to fire it off himself, but left Lalf-a- crown to a beggarly 
Scotchman (Mallet) to draw the trigger after his death." 

The charge of cowardice contained in this famous 
sentence is amply refuted by the fact that Bolingbroke, 
during his lifetime, had never scrupled to publish 
criticisms, remarkable for their freedom, on religious 
subjects. Johnson, who v>^as always looking for an 
opportunity for reviling Scotland and its inhabitants, may 
have been betrayed into this explosion more by the 
position of Mallet as literary executor than by his 
indignation at Bollngbroke's speculations. Burke is said 
to have inquired, " Who now reads Bolingbroke ? '* 
The answer is obvious. Every lover of English composi' 



CONCLUSION. 227 

tlon in its most perfect form will read Bolingbroke. 
Every student of rhetoric will find his Dissertation on 
Parties, his Spirit of Patriotism, his Idea of a Patriot 
King, invaluable. To the historical student, a perusal of 
Bolingbroke's political writings is absolutely indispensable 
for a right comprehension of the ideas held by men of his 
day. Unless we know what men were thinking about in 
the times under consideration, the mere facts of history 
become dry bones. With the aid of Bolingbroke's political 
writings, the lives and thoughts of the men of his day 
are made real to us. Johnson and Burke in different 
fashion both owed much to Bolingbroke, and they repaid 
the debt by attempting to kick away the ladder which 
had aided their ascent to fame. 

The attacks on his private life, on his public career, and 
on the value of his literary works contain much that is 
unanswerable. But most of Bolingbroke's biographers 
have either approached the subject of their biography with 
undisguised hostility, or, by enlarging on unimportant 
details in his career, have failed to place in their proper 
'proportion his greatest political and literary achievements. 
One biographer, whose whole tone has been, till quite 
lately, that generally adopted by historians, speaks of the 
" ingrate and cankered Bolingbroke," of his " fell genius," 
his " subtle intellect, his showy, sophistical eloquence, his 
power of intrigue, his consummate falsehood, his vice and 
infidelity," and concludes, somewhat charitably, by stvlino- 
him a " superior fiend " and by quoting Milton's lines : — 

"In act more graceful than humane, 
A fairer person lost not heaven; he seemed 
For dignity composed and high exploit; 
But all was false and hollow, though his tongue 
Dropt manna, and could make the worst appear 
The better reason, to perplex aud dash 
Maturest counsels." 

Q 2 



228 EENBYST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKK 

Now, a " superior fiend " would not have stood in an 
agony of grief at Pope's bedside. " Fell geniuses " do 
not watch puppet-shows with little girls on their knees. 
" Ingrate and cankered " politicians do not write anxious 
letters about sick nephews an 1 offer to pay their debts. 
But it is not worth while to say more on this subject. 
These views, quoted above, merely show the extent to 
which calumny, vindictiveness, and malice will pursue the 
memory of an illustrious statesman. His faults are 
patent enough, but so are his virtues. He must have 
been a delightful companion. 

"With Pope and Swift," writes Mr. Skelton, "and Prior, and Gay, 
and Peterboiougli, and Arbuthnot around Mm, the handsome Secretary 
threw off the cares of office. He unbent wholly. ' Harry ' was the 
most brilliant member of the brilliant society which enjoyed ' Matt's ' 
airy pleasantries and ' Jonathnn's ' solemn jests." 

Swift, in a passage already quoted, bears full witness 
to his good-nature, his gen.erosity, his excellent taste, 
his wit, capacity, good looks, quickness of apprehension, 
and learning. But he had the misfortune to offend 
mortally the great Whig fomilies, and the hostility of 
that Venetian oligarchy, which seldom forgave, pursued 
him through his life and after his death with relentless 
fury. The great Whig families had, indeed, no cause 
to love the memory of Bolingbroke. In 1714 he 
had seriously threatened the success of their Revolution 
principles, and he had almost ruined their schemes ; 
during Walpole's Ministry he had undermined their 
monopoly of power, and he had shown the Tories the way 
to oust them from office and to consign them to the cold 
snade of opposition during most of George IH.'s and all 
George lY.'s reign. Could he expect any mercy from 
Whig historians ? 

No greater compliment could perhaps be paid to his 



CONCLUSION, 229 

memory than the interest which is still taken in his 
meteoric career, in his soaring amhitlon, in his keen 
literary tastes. As long as there remains a classical 
scholar, so long may he look for translations of Homer ; 
as long as mediaeval history is studied, fresh monographs 
on Dante and his divine poem will continue to appear. 
And w^e may say that as long as human nature with its 
lights and shades still occupies the attention of men in each 
succeeding generation, writers will be found ready to make 
fresh studies of this extraordinary character, in which, as 
Lord Chesterfield said, "good aud evil were perpetually 
jostling one another." J\lost of his contemporaries are 
allowed to sleep in comparative peace ; but who can say 
that the final word has been said of the author of the 
Peace of Utrecht? His illustrious ancestry, his fiery 
ambition, his remarkable and diversified talents, his posi- 
tion at the head of affairs at one of the most momentous 
crises in English history, his sudden and most dramatic 
fall, all lend a deep interest to Anne's reign. Then his 
desertion by the Fates, his banishment into perpetual 
opposition just when his powers were at their best, his 
struggles against" the Whig families, his laborious at- 
tempts to reconstruct the Tory party, all give the domes- 
tic history of George II. a special interest. 

His age was the age of great men. Marlborough, 
Somers, Shrewsbury, Godolphin, Harley, Walpole, Swift, 
Pope, Pulteney, and Carteret were all his contemporaries. 
It w-as an age of political and literary giants. Seldom 
has England been possessed at any one epoch of so much 
political talent. But Bolingbroke towers above them all 
in those qualities which m.ake a statesman. In his power 
of grasping opportunities, in his splendid abilities, in his 
marvellous oratory, in his endeavour to elevate and expand 
the views of men, he was far superior to any of his con- 



230 HENBTST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBROKK 

temporaries. Once only did he lose his head, and for 
that fatal error England paid dearly. The author of the 
Peace of Utrecht, and of the reconstruction of the Tory 
party, the advocate of Parliamentary freedom, and of the 
union of the people and the King, may well be pardoned 
one error in judgment. The recognition of his merits 
by French writers shows that Bolingbroke's diversified 
talents are appreciated beyond England's four seas. 
" His name," it has been said, "may be tracked in history 
by a luminous streak, such as a shooting star leaves behind 
it in its glancing and glittering dash across the sky." 
Whatever view is taken of certain episodes in his career, 
no one will now dispute his title of The Great Loid 
Bollngbroke. 



INDEX. 



A. 

Abjuration Bill, 15, 209. 

Addisou, 19, 45, 71, 1S3, 184, 
196. 

Africa, 72. 

Aix-la-Chapelle, 124, 127, 157; 
peace of, 162. 

Akeuside, 136. 

Alari, Abbe', 69, 128., 

Alberoni, 224. 

Al.G^eiine pirates, 141. 

Alliance, tbe Grand, 15", 28, 29, 48, 
55 73 158 

Allies, the, 17, 21, 24, 26, 48, 49, 
50, 53, 55, 56, 57, 59, 61, 64-67, 
73, 78. 

Almanza, 30, 66. 

America, North, 58, 70, 76, 82, 225. 

America, South, 76, 77, 226. 

American War of Independence, 
154, 209. 

Anglesea, Lord, 113. 

Anne, Queen, 15, 17, 19, 22-24, 27, 
29, 30-4, 36, 38-42, 45, 46, 48, 
49, 50, 54, 57, 59, 60, 61, 62, 67, 
71, 74, 75, 78, 80, 81, 84-87, 89, 
90-92, 95-109, 112, 113, 123, 
131, 137, 151. 162, 170, 172, 
174-6, 182, 186, 188, 190, 195, 
198, 201, 204, 222. 

Arbuthnot, 184, 189, 228. 

Argeville, 150, 1.57, 1.^9, 176, 178. 

Argyle, 24, 38, 39, 105-7. 

Abliby versus White, 20. 

Ashdown Park, 96. 176, 177. 

Asiento compact, 76, 77, 226. 

Attainder, Act of. 111. 125, 128. 

Atterbury, 46, 93, 96, 106, 112, 125, 
188. 



Austrian Succession, war of, 131, 

162. 
Avignon, letter from, 123. 

Aylesbury electors, 27. 
Azzurini Conti, 68. 



B. 

Bank of England, 18, 47. 

Barrier, the, 12, 59, 64, 75, 93. 

Barrier Treaty, Remarks upon they 
64, 183. 

Bath hurst, Lord, 37, 151. 

Battersea, 1, 5, 6, 157, 159, 164, 
178, 179. 

Bavaria, 26, 158. 

Beaconsfield, Earl of, 76, 182, 210, 
225. 

Beggars' Opera, the, 188, 190. 

Berkeley, Earl of, 126. 

Berwick, Duke of, 116, 119, 120-2. 

Blaithwayte, 23. 

Blenheim, 24, 26, 27. 

Bletso, 4, 5. 

Bolingbroke, the first earl of, 4. 

Bnlingbroke, Henry St. John, 
Viscount, his works : — State of 
Parties at the Accession of George 
L, 13, m, 163, 200 ; Letter to Sir 
William Wyndham, 18, 46, 49, 
86, 115, 116, 118, 119, 123, 200, 
202 ; The Study and Love of 
History, 25, 28, 45, 150, 151, 171, 
200 ; The true use of Study and 
Retirement, 37, 150 : The Patriot 
King, 154, 163, 168, 176, 200, 
205-209, 227; Dissertation on 
Parties, 39, 145, 150, 170, 200, 
202, 205, 227; The Spirit of 



232 



INDEX. 



Patriotism, 148, 1?0, 168, 200, 
227 ; The Occasional Writer, 143, 
188 ;, Letter to M. cleFi.uilhj, 125, 
197 ; The First Vision of Came- 
lich, 138, 188; Letters on the 
History of Athens, 139 ; Befl-ec- 
tions on Innate Moral Principles, 
197; The Moral Essays, 211; 
Letter to 'the Examiner, 50, 51; 
Political Correspondence, 1*^9, 
200 ; Epistolary Essays, 193 ; Be- 
i\v(rl:s on the History of England, 
139, 1-10, 200. 

Bolingbroke, Lady (the first), 11, 
96, i 23, 124. 

Bolingbroke, Lady (the second), 
10, 96, 123, 124. 

Bonaparte, 83, 90. 

Booth, 7. 

Bolhniar, 60, 6S. 

Bouc'hain, 58. 

Bourbons, the, 29, 35, 61, 62, 74. 

Bourbon, Duke of, 127. 

Bridges, 80. 

Brihuega, battle of, 52, 57. 

Bromley, 11, 15, 46, 95, 106. 

Brougham, 170, 171. 

Brutus, tragedy of, 195. 

Bubb-Doddington, 196 . 

Buckingham, 43, 93, 106 (temp. 
Cli. L), 139. 

Buckleisbury, 35, 69, 114, 124, 176, 
184. 

Burgundy, Duke of, 65. 

Burke, 24, 182, 226, 227. 

Bute, 207, 209. 

Buy:^, 59, 81. 

c. 

Cabinet, the, 24, 31, 33, 110. 

Calais, 114. 127. 

Canada, 58, 82, 225. 

Canning, 225. 

Carlos, Don, 143. 

Caroline, Queen, 152, 153. 

Carteret, 125-128, 135, 153, 154, 

156-160. 
Catalans, 5, 7, 75, 76, 92, 
Cato, 71. 

Cevennes, the, 26. 
Chanteloup, 78, 150. 



CI taring Cross, 112. 

Charles I., 4, 5, 120, 222. 

Charles IL, 120, 164. 

Charles II. of Spain, 12. 

Charles V., 57, 72. 

Charles VI., 64, 137, 142, 143, 158. 

Charles XII., 196. 

Charles, Archduke, 26, 38, 57. 

Charles Edward, 161. 

Che.ster, Bishop of, 33. 

Chesterfield, 92, 135, 144, 153, 160 

163, 167, 169, 170, 172, 193, 229. 
Christ Church, 8, 9, 15. 
Chubb, 197, 211. 
CJmrch, the, 18, 27, 47, 48, 50. 87, 

89, 100, 103, 113, 131, 132, 148, 

183, 201. 
Churton Collins, Mr., 195. 
Cid, the, 67. 
Cinque Forts, the, 95. 
Circuit of London, the, 2. 
Clarendon, 100, 103. 
Cobham, 144, 153. 
Cockpit, tlie, 105. 
Collins, 197. 

Colonies, 22, 81-83, 225, 226. 
Commerce, 17, 22, 76, 77, 81, 82, 

225, 226. 
Commercial Treaty with France, 

77, 78, 92, 94, 95, 144. 
Commercial Treaty with Spain, 

108. 
Commercy, 117. 
Committee of Secrecy, 115. 
Compton, Sir Spencer, 135, 157, 

159. 
Conduct of the Allies, the, 61, 64, 

183, 201, 207. 
Congreve, 184, 188, 196. 
Cornbury, 78, 151, 155, 179. 
Cowper, William, 27, 36, 42. 
Council of Kegency, 107, 113. 
Craftsman, the, 137, 147, 150, 187, 

188. 
Craggs, 103. 
Crisis, the, 97, 100, 183. 
Cromwell, 6, 40, 76, 222, 226. 

D. 

Daily Courant, 59. 
Danby, 2. 



INDEX. 



233 



Dante, 229. 

D'Anvers, Caleb, 137. 

D'Argenson, 128. 

Darlington, Countess of, 127. 

Dartmouth, 16, 41, 43, 56, 58, 95. 

D Aumont, 177. 

Davenaut, 9. 

Dawlev, 129, 150, 176, 178, 179, 

186-183, 192-3, 196-198. 
Defoe, 54, 183. 
Deism, 177. 197, 211, 222. 
Dtttingen, 159. 
De Quincey. 191. 
D'Iberville, 35, 86, 117. 
Discontented Wiiig.s, 134, 136, 137, 

145, 147, 148, 151, 152, 155, 166, 

202, 205. 
Disqualification Bill, 19. 
Dissenters, Shortest Waij ivWi, 1S3. 
Driimujond, 51, 59, 70. 
Drury Lane, 114. 
Dryclen, 9, 10, 182. 
Dubois, 125, 127. 
Dunciacl the, 188, 189, 190. 
Dunkirk, 142. 
Dutch, the, 17, 22, 26, 28, 30, 33, 

58, 59, 64, 66, 67, 73, 75, 1:8, 158. 



E, 



East I^'DIE3, 72. 

Eldon, 209. 

Elizabeth, 34, 173. 

Entresol Club, 128. 

Essay on Criticism, 189. 

Essay on Man, 163, 191-193. 

Eugene, Prince, 24, 30, 64. 

Evans, General, 177. 

Examiner, the, 50-52, 183. 

Exchange, the, 96 

Excise Scheme, 143-146, 152. 

Exeter, Bishop for, 33. 

Expansion of England, the, 11, 82. 

F. 

Fatjbotjeg St. Germain, 164. 
Ferriole, Madame de, 69, 116. 
Fieldiug, 136. 
Finch, 126, 128. 



Flanders, 52, 57, 64. 

Florence, 45, 198. 

Fontainebltau, 67, 70. 

Fox, Charles J., 116, 149, 205. 

France, 13, 26, 28, 29, 48, 55, 59, 

71, 74, 81, 92, 94, 107, 130, 137, 

141, 149, 154, 158, 166, 194, 195, 

230. 
Frederick the Great, 158. 
Frederick, Prince of Wales, 153, 

154, 163, 167, 206. 
Freind, Dr., 8, 184. 
French Revolution, 45. 



G. 

Gallas, 59, 61, 81. 
Gaultier, 57, 58, 61, 85, 86, 101. 
Gay, 183, 184, 188-190, 228. 
George I, 23, 85-87, 90, 91, 100, 

103, 106, 107, 112, 122, 123, 126, 

127, 130, 134, 140, 141, 167, 182, 

19U, 198, 222, 223. 
George II., 23, 134, 135, 147, 153, 

160, 167. 187, 222, 223, 229. 
George IIL, 23, 114, 161, 205, 207, 

209, 228. 
George IV., 228. 
Germans, 22, 94. 
Gertruydenberg, 38, 39, 57. 
Gibraltar, 26, 76, 111, 142. 
Gladstone, Mr., 182. 
Godolphin, 16, 17, 21, 25, 27, 28, 

30-34, 36, 40, 41, 47, 53, 69, 80, 

88, 90, 98-109, 172. 
Golden Square, 103. 
Graudisou, Viscount, 5, 10. 
Granville, 44. 
Gregg, 31. 
Grenville, 153. 
Guardian, The, 185. 
Guiscard, 53, 54, 79. 
Gidliver's Travels, 188. 



H. 

Hague, the, 37, 39, 57, 68. 
Halifax, 12, 14, 15, 19, 36. 
Hamilton, 62, 70. 



234 



INDEX, 



Hanmer, 78, 94. 

Hanover, 13, 48, 86, 95, 102, 127, 

130, 224. 
Hanoverian Tories, 93, 103, 126, 

136, 137, 147, 155, 163, 1G6, 202. 
Harcourt, 15, 16, 17, 34, 42, 47, 53, 

93, 106, 126, 128. 
Havre, 113. 
Harley, see Oxford. 
Harrington, 160. 
Harrop, Mr., 89, 173, 200. 
Haversham, 35. 
Hedges, 13, 15, 17. 
Heinsius, 57, 68. 
Henriade, 189, 194, 195. 
Herrenhausen, 127. 
Hill, Abigail, see Masham. 
Hobbes, 220. 
Homer, 229. 
House of Lords 14, 16-20, 27, 62, 

93, 114, 128, 158, 171. 
Hudibras, 196. 
Hughson, 2. 
Hungary, 72. 



I. 



Iddesleigh, Lord, 182. 

Imperialists, 26, 49, 65, 66, 73, 75. 

India, 82. 

Indies, West, 29, 42. 

Ireland, 22. 107, 161, 188-190. 

Italian Duchies, 142, 143. 

Italy, 10, 26, 66, 68, 72. 



J. 



Jacobites, 17, 35, 68, 85, 87, 90, 93, 
102, 114, 117, 118, 122-124, 130, 
137, 140, 147-149, 153, 155, 163, 
166, 175, 201, 202, 223. 

James, L, 4, 5, 167, 175. 

James Edward, see The Pretender. 

Joanna, Lady, 3, 56, 57. 

Jersey, 10, 17, 23, 57, 90. 

Johnson, 136, 163, 208, 226, 227. 

Joseph, Emperor, 26, 28, 30, 33, 
38, 57, 66, 71, 72. 



Kendal, Duchess of, 128. 
Kensington, 105. 
Kent, 23, 41, 43. 
Kentish petition, 14. 
King, Archbishop, 68. 
Kitcat Club, 55. 



L. 

La Source, 124, 128, 176, 177, 179, 
186, 197. 

Land Tax Bill, 27. 

Landowner, 114, 115. 

Lechler, 211. 

Lecky, Mr., 40, 73, 167, 173. 

Leicester House, 134. 

Leslie Stephen, Mr., 189, 190. 

Lettres sur les Anglais, 196, 197. 

Lewis, Erasmus, 104. 

Lockhart Papers, 98, 101. 

Locke, 197, 216, 220. 

London, 52, 105. 

London Gazette, 63. 

Lorenzo di Medici, 197, 198. 

Lorraine, 92, 100, 117, 143. 

Louis XIV., 2, 12, 14, 16, 22, 28, 
29, 37, 51, 57, 60, 62, 65, 67, 69, 
75, 120, 121, 163, 166, 19 i, 196. 

Louis XV., 81. 

Lydiard Tregoze, 5, 67. 

Lyttelton, 153-155, 160. 



M. 

Macknight, Mr., 116. 

Madrid, 75. 

Maintenon, Madame de, 124 

Mallet, David, 163, 210. 

Mansel, 23, 34, 43. 

Mar, Earl of, 95, 106, 121. 

Marchmont, 150, 156, 157, 159, 161, 

204. 
Marcilly, 124. 
Maria Theresa, 158, 162. 
Masham, Mis, 30, 31, 34, 42, 62, 

96, 100, 103. 
Marlborough, 2, 15, 16, 17, 21-34, 



INDEX. 



235 



36, 38-41, 45, 48, 51, 52, 57, 58, 

61-64, 66, 71, 87, 90, 109, 172, 

174, 201, 229. 
Marlborougli, Duchess of, 31, 32, 

34, 38, 41, 42, 196. 
Mesnager, 58, 59. 
Middle Ages, the, 45 
Middleton, 117, 118. 
Milan, 28, 66. 
Milton, 196, 227. 
Miscellanies, 180.- 
Mississippi Scheme, 124. 
Monk, General, 90. 
Montague, Lady Mary, 182. 
Montague, 45. 
Moore, Arthur, 77, 102. 
Morley, Mr. J., 182, 195. 
Murray, 160. 

N. 

Naples, 28, 143. 

National Debt, 39, 51. 

Navy, The, 21, 83, 225.. 

Neutrals, The, 93, 95. 

Newbury, Jack of, 10, 35. 

Newcastle, 43, 160. 

New Court Ballad, 142. 

Nimeguen, 2. 

Nonconformists, 6, 17, 18, 23, 47, 

48, 53, 62, 84, 89, 94, 131, 204. 
Norfolk House, 153. 
Norfolk Lanthorn, 140. 
Normanby, 17. 
North, 149, 207, 209, 210. 
Nottingham, 16, 17, 23, 28, 35, 60, 

62,81,93, 113, 126. 
Nystadt, Treaty of, 224. " 



o. 

Occasional Conformity, 18, 19, 27, 

60, 84, 93. 
October Club, 53, 88, 98, 106. 
Opposition to VValpole, 131, 13.5, 

136, 145, 146, 148, 150, 154, 155, 

157, 158, 159, 192. 
Orford, 14, 36. 
Orleans, The Kegent, 121, 125, 

127, 194. 



Ormond, 22, 43, 66, 93, 95, 101, 106, 
119-121. 

Oudenurde, 36. 

Oxford, 11, 14, 15, 17, 23, 24, 25, 
27, 30-35, 38, 41-43, 47, 48, 50- 
56, 61, 65, 67, 69, 74, 79-81, 86, 
91, 95, 97, 104, 106-108, 112, 
114, 115, 124, 131, 140, 166, 183, 
185, 186, 201, 209, 229. 

Oxford, University of, 8, 9, 15. 



Paget, 43. 

Palmerston, Lord, 225. 

Pall Mall, 129. 

Paris, 58, 67, 69, 75, 114, 116, 118 

127, 128. 
Parliament of Paris, 169, 180. 
Parliamentary Hit^tory, the, 170. 
Parke, Gilbert, 113. 
Parnell, 54, 184, 188. 
Parson's Green, 177. 
Partition Treaties, 12, 14, 28. 
Patriots, Boy, 155, 160, J 76. 
Pelhams, the, 159, 160, 208. 
Peterborough, 30, 87, 114, 117, 186, 

228. 
Philip v., 12, 28,29, 38, 57, 65, 66, 

75. 
Philips, 181. 
Pitt, tlie Elder, 23, 58, 83, 136, 153, 

160, 161, 178, 204,207,210. 
Pitt, the Younger, 22, 45, 77, 83, 

207 209. 
Polwa'rth, 125, 153, 158, 159, 203. 

205. 
Pope, 3, 124, 149, 151, 157, 161, 

163, 169, 178, 179, 181, 182, 184, 

185, 187-194, 196, 210, 228. 
Portland, 14. 
Portugal, 26, 
Poullet, 43. 

Pragmatic Sanction, 143. 
Pretender, the, 12, 14, 15, 68, 71, 

85-87, 90, 91, 100, 101, 103, 116, 

118, 123, 175, 203. 
Prior, 10, 45, 54, 58, 67, 70,96, 114, 

182, 184, 228. 
Property Qualification Bill, 52, 84* 



236 



INDEX. 



Protestant Succession, 13, 16, 48, 71, 
85, 88, 93, 94, 103. 

Piilteuey, D-uiiel, 135, 136. 

Pultenev, William, 103, 116, 131, 
135, 136, 138, 146, 147, 149, 152, 
153, 156, 160, 161, 205, 206. 

Pyrenees, the, 81. 



QuADEUPLE Alliance, 141, 224. 



E. 

Eanke, Von, 104. 

Ba^ye of the Loci!, 189. 

Eeading Abbey, 35. 

Kebellion of 1715, 121, 122, 130, 

131. 
Rebellion of 1745, 160, 161. 
Reformation, the, 35. 
Regents, the, 113. 
Remusat, Count, 175. 
Restoration of Stuarts, 84-87, 90, 

91, 93, 97, 111. 
Hevieio, the, 183. 
Revolution, the, 16, 18, 23, 131, 145- 

7, 202-204. 
Revolution Families, the, 133, 134, 

149, 160, 204, 205, 228. 
Robinson, Bishop, 43, 96. 
Rochester, 17,^^, 28, 35, 43, 54, 

209. 
Rooke, 27. 
Ryswick, Peace of, 11, 12, 23. 



s. 



Sacheverell, 40, 41, 47, 132. 
St. Clair, 116. 
St. John, Frederick, 7. 
St. John, George, 177, 179. 
St. John, Henry, 5, 36, 123, 156. 
St. John, Oliver, 5. 
St. John, Walter, 3, 5, 6, 7, 36, 164. 
Satires and Epistles of Horace Imi- 
tated, 192, 193. 
Savoy, 26, 38, 66, 69, 143. 



Schaub, Sir Ltike, 127. 

Schism Act, 100, 103, 166. 

Schifcm, the Whig, 131. 

Schutz, 100. 

Scribe, 41. 

Seriblerus Club, 136, 184, 188. 

Secession, the Tory, 154. 

Septennial Act, 130, 149, 150. 

Seneca, 123, 151. 

Sens, Abbey of, 157. 

Settlement, the Act of, 13, 31, 85, 

87, 91, 94, 107, 175, 205, 209. 
Seven Years War, the, 83. 
Seville, Treaty of, 142, 224. 
Seymour, 17, 23. 
Shakspere, 196. 
Shelburne, 116. 
Siiippen, 136, 153, 155. 
Shrewsbury, 8, 24, 38, 39, 41, 43, 58, 

59, 70, 87, 101, 104-107, 110, 

113, 229. 
Sicily, 28, 73. 
Silesia, 158. 
Skelton, Mr., 228. 
Smith, 27. 

Society of Brothers, 55, 184. 
Somers, 12, 14, 15, 20, 36, 229. 
Somerset, 24, 38, 39, 43, 60, 62, 87, 

105-107. 
Somerset, Duchess of, 62, 103. 
South Sea, the, 72. 
South Sea Scheme, 131. 
Spain, 22, 26, 29, 30, 33, 35, 52, 57, 

74, 81, 119, 137, 141, 143, 154. 
Spanish Succession, the, 12, 82, 

141, 162. 
Stair, 116, 122, 125, 144, 164, 160. 
Stamp Duty, 64. 
Stanhope, 103, 122, 224. 
Stanley, Sir John, 177, 179. 
Stebbing, Mr. 162. 
Steele, 97, 100, 163. 
Stella, 63, 185. 
Stratford, 57, 61, 63, 65, 70, 72, 75, 

112, 114, 167, 177. 
Sutfolk, Lady, 135. 
Sunderland, 31, 32, 33, 36, 41, 125. 
Swift, 6, 11, 33, 44, 45, 51-55, 

61-64, 69, 85, 87, 89, 99, 100, 

102, 104, 108, 112, 128, 151, 161, 

169, 177, 178, 183, i85, 186, 188, 

189, 190, 192, 201, 229. 



INDEX. 



237 



T. 

Temple, Sir "William, 110. 

Tenoin, Abbe de, 69, 116. 

Tencin, Madame de, 69, 116. 

Thomson, 136. 

TillotsoD, Archbishop, 210. 

Toland, 197. 

Tonson, Jacob, 10. 

Torcv, 57, 67, 69, 75, 76, 85, 116, 

117, 175. 
Tonraine, 78, 150. 
Townshend, 113, 114, 123, 125-127, 

131. 
Trevelyan, Sir George, 205. 
Tiiple Alliance, 130. 
Tubingen School, 220. 
Turin, Battle of, 26. 
Tuscan Ports, 143. 
Twickenham, 88, 157, 188, 192, 193, 

198. 

u. . 

Union with Scotland, The 35. 
Utrecht, Conference at, 64-66, 70, 

79. 
Utrecht, Treaty of, 2, 7, 71. 73, 75, 

76, 78, 80-82, 84, 86, 92-94, 114. 

130, 141, 142, 151, 158, 159, 164, 

171, 179, 183, 224, 226, 229, 230. 



V. 



Vane, Sir H., 9. 
Venice, 117. 



Vere, 139. 

Verona, 45. 

Vervins, Peace of, 162. 

Vienna, 2nd Treaty of, 137, 142, 

224. 
Vienna, Final Treaty of, 143. 
Villa Vicicsa. 5, 7. 
Voltaire, 125, 176, 179, 181, 182, 

189, 193-197. 



w. 

Walpole, Horace, 7, 127. 

Walpole, Kobert, 7, 8, 13, 14, 20, 
^5, 42, 77, 79, 103, 114, 115, 125, 
127, 131-150, 152-156, 158, 166, 
171, 172, 176, 179, 187, 192, 201- 
203, 207, 209, 224, 225. 

Warburton, 163. 

AYharton, 12. 

Whigs, Public Spirit of the, 183. 

William III., 12-19, 58, 161, 183, 
203, 204. 

Windsor, 35, 177, 186. 

Wolsey, 129. 

Wood's Halfpence, 190. 

Wood, Anthony, 8. 

Wootton Bassett, 11, 14, 15, 27. 

Wyndham, 18, 46, 59, 91, 95, 103, 
104, 113, 115, 116, 118, 123, 126, 
136, 143, 154, 155, 159, 178. 

Wyon, Mr., 17, 29, 90. 



z. 



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